My Newfound Respect for Hank Paulson
I cannot go into the details, as the entire conversation was off the record. However, I can tell you that, despite disagreeing with the bailouts & TARP that was put into place under his regime at Treasury, Hank Paulson may actually be a decent guy. When you look at the rest of the parade of...
10 Monday PM Reads
My afternoon train reading: • Stocks Least Loved Since ’80s (Bloomberg) • Ahhhnold & Michael Lewis: California and Bust (VF) • The Unintended Consequences of Tech Stock Repurchases (NYT) • Debit-Card Pitchwoman Orman Flirts With Conflict (Bloomberg) • Old mortgages rise from the dead, haunt homeowners (Reuters) • If I Were a Broker, Here’s How...
Amazon May Experiment with Physical Bookstores
There were two announcements this weekend that may freak people out over the future of books. The first was a prominent and innovative independent bookseller announcing that she had put her store up for sale with a broker who might look for someone to take over. As with the sale of the popular store in...
Tinkerbell Economics – The Confidence Fairy, Pixie Dust and a Sleeping Dragon
Dan Alpert is a founding Managing Partner of Westwood Capital. He has more than 30 years of international merchant banking and investment banking experience, including a wide variety of work-out and bankruptcy related restructuring experience. In addition to his structured finance expertise, Dan has extensive experience advising on mergers, acquisitions and private equity financings, he...
Magazine Cover Indicator: New York “End of Wall Street”
> This week’s New York magazine — a non Business publication — has a rather bearish cover discussing “The Emasculation of Wall Street. Last week, I mentioned the Barron’s cover was somewhat bullish, with the caveat that Barron’s is a business weekly. New York magazine is more general interest — its not Time or Newsweek,...
Greece’s hourglass running out of sand
Greece’s hourglass is running out of sand as officials scramble to turn it over again. As pressure continues to be brought upon Greek politicians to agree to more budget cuts before they get more bailout money and a PSI agreement remains elusive however close the parties continue to say they are to a deal, the...
A Few Thoughts on the Employment Situation
Last week, I went into the details of the NFP report (See Tearing Apart January 2012 NFP data). There were 10 positive bullet points versus 5 negatives — and even those negatives were the same old sore spots (high teen and minority unemployment, persistent long term joblessness, etc.) that have been plaguing the labor market...
Most Mentioned NFL Players on “SportsCenter”
click for full graphic > Hat tip Flowing Data
Norris: US, Global Growth Outlook “Well below trend”
Floyd Norris explains why the picture for Global Growth has been disappointing: “United States economy has been growing at its slowest rate since the Great Depression. Most other major developed countries have also experienced unusually slow growth over the last 10 years. The American economy’s reported 2.8 percent growth in the fourth quarter, at an...
Richard Feynman: The Pleasure of Fnding Things Out
THE PLEASURE OF FINDING THINGS OUT, Richard Feynman Interview (1981) BBC Horizon/PBS Nova THE PLEASURE OF FINDING THINGS OUT, Richard Feynman Interview (1981) Fifty minutes of PURE Feynman! This is the original Horizon Nova interview – essential for any Feynman fan… and for everyone else too! “I’m an explorer, OK I like to find out!”...
Housing Tornado Warnings Were an Exercise in Futility
> There is a absurd yet fascinating article in the Sunday Times by Gretchen Morgenson, titled A Mortgage Tornado Warning, Unheeded. It is is stirring and emotional. What makes it fascinating is yet another story told about prescient warnings in advance not heeded about the coming mortgage crisis. What makes it absurd is its complete...
