Usually when an article starts off with a roomful of theoretical mathematicians having a whiteboard party, I zone out pretty quickly, but I found this story interesting because it’s conclusions could become very important for stock pickers and active managers all around the world. From HarvardBusiness.org: We were trying to get our heads around the…
Bloomberg
UBS: "Selling Tax Evasion as a Service"
From Bloomberg: Under threat of prosecution, UBS in February agreed to turn over about 250 names of Americans suspected of tax fraud. We’ve discussed this matter on TRB before, but frankly the longer this thing festers, the more it’s gonna piss me off. UBS has this enormous “Wealth Management” business here in the US and…
Hot Links: Too Lazy To Post Edition
Hot Links for Friday Reading Hey kids, here’s what I’m reading this morning… What’s the most thankless job you can think of? Try being Irving Picard, the Decider of the Madoff affair. Trustee in Madoff Case (NYT) More from the “commercial real estate is the next shoe to drop” camp. New Debt Fears in Commercial…
Dr. Doom on Hyperinflation
Many economists are scoffing at the potential for hyperinflation here in the United States as housing price declines, unemployment and auto sector weakness dominate the headlines. I don’t know if scoffing is the best idea right about now. I have frequently been discussing the possibility of hyperinflation both with clients and here on TRB. Earlier this month, I…
Facebook Suckers in More "Investment" Cash
Is Facebook worth anywhere near $10 billion? Nope! Not even half. They could go public tonight and possibly raise that much, but that valuation would only be temporary. Never mind that, a Russian company was the latest to get rooked by the social media hype machine… From Bloomberg: Facebook Inc., the world’s largest social-networking service, said it…
Arnie's Choice
Here’s another bad economic joke that’s not really a joke… Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger: The economy in Kalee-Fornee-A is so bad… Audience: “How Bad Is It?” Arnold: It’s so bad that I announced last night that I had to either lay off 51,000 teachers or release 40,000 prisoners to balance the budget. From Bloomberg: California’s budget…
Brokers Selling Pretzels…WTF?
Chicago finally got it’s very own Madoff. His name is Charles Mosley and along with his partner Eric Bloom, he’s been a bad boy. But this guy’s not an outright thief, he’s more like a reckless moron… From Bloomberg: As Sentinel Management Group Inc. neared collapse in August 2007, piling up $950 million in losses..(the…
Dulling the Impact of the Stress Tests
an·ti·cli·max: Something trivial or commonplace that concludes a series of significant events This is not a discussion of whether or not the upcoming 19-bank stress test results are important or whether or not they should have been conducted in the first place. Instead, the subject I’ll pontificate on here is the masterful dissemination of the potentially disruptive…
Morning Headlines: Swine Flu and Stress Tests
I guess there are two big stories competing for everyone’s attention this morning, neither of them positive… First up, it seems that the first confirmed Swine Flu death in the US was reported from Texas. From the New York Times: A 23-month-old child in Texas has died of the swine flu, marking the first confirmed…
1918 or 1976…Which Flu Are We Looking At?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sHK3oWpD5ZI&feature=related] In an article on Bloomberg this morning, Elizabeth Lopatto gives us a quick rundown of two other flu epidemics from the last century and their vastly different impact. From Bloomberg: Doctors don’t know yet if the swine flu that may have killed at least 149 people in Mexico is more like the 1918 form…
