Interesting (if fairly bleak) 90-minute panel discussion on "the world in 2050". Worth watching/listening all the way through, even if the main takeaway is that you might want to give the world in 2050 a pass, perhaps checking back on the whole human thing in 2100 or so.
Click to watch as this...
Two interesting looking programs in next 24 hours talking about the Goldman Sachs/SEC allegations:
First, a good group of people in a one-hour live Charlie Rose special tonight on Bloomberg TV talking the Goldman Sachs debacle:
Tonight, Sunday April 18th at 6 PM /ET, Bloomberg Television will present a live...
Speaking of CDOs, this came in my email today:
I was involved in structuring the very first CDO squared...a deal that won Derivatives Deal
of the Year in 1999. It was a CDO composed of BBB tranches of other CDOs. ...We figured out that the...
Both Discovery Channel "I Love the Whole World" commercials back-to-back. Two minutes of such indelible awesomeness.
As referenced in the SEC complaint about Goldman Sachs' alleged CDO machinations, here is the Abacus CDO flipbook. Fun (financially technical) reading.
[via Barry]
When in doubt, ask Google. Dear Google: Is Goldman ...?
This is sort of interesting from CNBC: the top CDO underwriters, 2002-2007. The trouble, of course, is that most of the CDO underwriters weren't as smart (ahem) as Goldman in structuring the things and so, perversely enough, aren't likely to see the same legal action.
From questioning during Goldman's Lloyd Blankfein's FCIC testimony in January: CHAIRMAN ANGELIDES: 
Blast from the Goldman Testimony Past: CDOs and Bad Brakes
The act of selling [CDOs]—I can understand how my point was you had a view of the market as you continued to sell the securities. I guess one of the questions I’d ask...
The financial sector is colorfully volcanic on Finviz this morning on news that the SEC has leveled a complaint against Goldman Sachs for allegedly constructing "just add collapse" ready-to-fail collateralized debt obligations (CDO) for at least one client.
Uber-bearish fund manager Eric Sprott gets on CNBC to flog his new anti-GLD gold product, pushes gold some more, and reluctantly defend himself: "I've been wrong on equities since March of 2009". Overall, how can you not like a bear with such a nice Canadian accent?
A super collection of eye-popping anecdotes from the last of the really great remaining real estate bubbles: Vancouver BC. Read ‘em, but here is one to get you started:
“Can someone say the market is stupid hot? If you ever need a speculative blow off top example here...
