Why Is Finance So Complex?
Steve Waldman was a software developer who became fascinated by finance and started writing about it. He is now a doctoral student in finance at the University of Kentucky. He blogs at Interfluidity. ~~~ Lisa Pollack at FT Alphaville mulls a question: “Why are we so good at creating complexity in finance?” The answer she...
Warning: transparency in finance may lead to goat-herding
Before the break, FT Alphaville took a look at abstraction and morality in modern finance. This prompted some rather interesting discussion, among which this post from Interfluidity:...
QOTD: The Illusion of Skill
Our quote of the day comes from an article in this Sunday’s NYT magazine, Don’t Blink! The Hazards of Confidence by Daniel Kahneman: “The illusion of skill is not only an individual aberration; it is deeply ingrained in the culture of the [financial] industry. Facts that challenge such basic assumptions — and thereby threaten people’s...
The end of the long con
“Around 2002, a developing country defaulted on its debt. Following protracted negotiations, agreement was reached that the bad debt would be replaced with a smaller amount of new good debt, with all investors losing around half their original investment. The...
FDIC Bank Failures
Bank Failures reported weekly by FDIC since mid-2008
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Cumulative Bank Failures reported weekly by FDIC for 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011
Fade the Consumer Credit Headline (For Now)
The Fed released its G.19 report on Consumer Credit last Thursday, and it stirred some optimism (see also here): The new U.S. consumer credit numbers reflect an economy that is reaccelerating, and that is very bullish for growth — as well as inflation. All in all, U.S. household credit surged by $7.62 billion in February,...
More proof the Chinese have been using copper as collateral
The disconnect between oil prices and copper prices is gaining increasing attention.Naturally, the curiosity boils down to the fact that while oil prices are rising, copper prices...
How to Get a Pipeline Built – Revisited
This is a post that was originally written in 2007.
There are regularly stories in the media or in the blogosphere about various pipeline projects that are announced with much publicity, and are seen to have major strategic consequences, or conversely ...
UBS Reports Stronger-Than-Expected Second-Quarter Earnings
Filed under: Earnings ReportsSwiss bank UBS (UBS) reported Tuesday it earned 2 billion Swiss francs ($1.9 billion) -- far better than the loss of 1.4 billion francs in the same quarter last year. Results also easily beat the consensus estimate. Further...
Personal Bankruptcy in America
Giant graphic of information, courtesy of Billshrink:
click for ginormous graphic
