Monday, September 29

Mike Masnick is a genious: best review of the market crisis yet.

Mike Masnick the prolifically talented founder and contributor over at Tech Dirt, nails it. He has a long post that reviews many of the moving parts involved with the subprime crisis up to today's market blow out.
Read it and understand why we are living in a complex world that requires complex analysis to achieve correct answers. And then thank Mike for taking the time to help unwind the knotted cord.

Thursday, September 25

David Evans is an Idiot: More News Fear-Mongering

This article on Bloomberg.com is amazing in its lack of understanding of simple ethics and economics and its desire to exploit banking failure fears currently inflamed due to IndyMac and other recent failures. The article describes a bank that is run by former FDIC officials that allows wealthy people to distribute their deposits among many different banks and therefore take advantage of the $100,000 deposit insurance provided by the FDIC. Somehow, the author of the article, Mr. Evans, has spun this into a nefarious thing. Apparently if you're rich you shouldn't be allowed to act rationally and divide your deposits amongst different institutions so that you can take full advantage of the insurance. Mr. Evans clearly believes that if you have more $100,000, then you have to deposit only at one bank and let the rest be subject to failure risk.
Have you ever heard anything more absurd?
The article takes to task former FDIC officials for having the foresight to recognize that people who want to secure more than $100,000 in cash deposits with one institution will not want to deal with the paperwork hassle of keeping track of many different deposits. They created a firm called Promontory Interfinancial Network in order to provide this exact service.
It's a genious idea that I wish I thought of because it's so simple and will clearly be in demand.
These officials should be celebrated for their foresight and ability to innovate in creating another great American business.
Mr. Evans should be fired for being an idiot. And his editor that allowed this story to run because it strums current fears about deposit safety in the aftermath of IndyMac and Lehman Brothers, should be fired as well. This is bad journalism at it's...um...worst.

Monday, September 15

This is disgusting. FRE & FNM's gov't control

Amazingly sad article in the Washington Post that demonstrates just how ineffectual our government has become. I fear that our society has deteriorated to the point of no return. Has the U.S. become Italy?

Friday, September 5

Foreclosures may not effect home prices much...

"Home prices are quite sticky." This is a story you won't hear much about in the media because, well, they can't think independently. A report from the National Bureau of Economic Research indicates that foreclosures won't impact home prices as much as the hysterical national media (and Nouriel Roubini) thinks they will. This is massive news, but it only made the WSJ's blog section...
Imagine that.

Wednesday, September 3

Nouriel Roubini is a joke.

So yes, he did make the call on the current financial malaise. And he did call it for the right reasons. However, I've had him on my feed reader for some time now and I can't say that I agree with much of what he has written since. The guy is a certified hysteric when it comes to the economy (and it doesn't matter whose). I think he was bullied as a child, because he's certainly trying to bully the economy into a recession. You can hear the strain in his writing as he wills a global recession.