Paul Wilmott on Britain's Windfall Banker Tax

They actually did it in Great Britain… From the New York Times: In Britain the first shots have just been fired by Alistair Darling, the chancellor of the Exchequer, our very own, very unlikely Wyatt Earp. On Wednesday he introduced a windfall tax of 50 percent to be paid by banks on discretionary bonuses above…

Gold Fever, Gold Bubble, Gold Mania, Gold Frenzy etc

Now that we have one asset class, gold, that is selling for all-time high prices, I’m not surprised to see it in the center of controversy. Gold has been hotly debated on and off Wall Street and by individual investors since at least mid-2008 when it first kissed $1000 an ounce. Now that it’s soaring…

What the Burlington Northern and Black & Decker Deals Have in Common

The Deal Professor, having expressed his dismay at the lack of M&A a day too early, weighs in on the similarities between Buffett’s purchase of BNI and the Stanley Works buyout of Black & Decker… From Steven M. Davidoff (NYT): While both deals may or may not be the sign of a new trend, and two…

Q3 GDP and Jobless Claims First Look

Two big numbers out this morning, we’ll put up the initial take on both: GDP (from Bloomberg) The U.S. economy grew in the third quarter for the first time in more than a year, propelled by stimulus-driven gains in consumer spending and home building. The world’s largest economy expanded at a 3.5 percent pace from…

Hot Links: Deflation, Brazil & Too-Big-To-Fail Whales

More Hot Links for Weekend Reading… Pay Attention: Joseph Stiglitz and others see deflation and Bernanke keeping rates down to fight it. (Bloomberg) Mortgages for sports stadium season tickets…why not, at this point? (MarketFolly) “An Unmitigated Disaster” – Denninger on the real unemployment numbers. (MarketTicker) A look at Brazilian stocks after the Olympic bid victory…

I Have a Dream…About Financial Media

Much has been made recently about the distinction between financial bloggers and mainstream media journalists and whether or not there should even be one. I hope that one day, we are all judged by the quality of our insight and integrity, rather than by our majors in college. With the deepest respect for the words…

Private Sector Cutting Debt…Uncle Sam? Not So Much.

Floyd Norris shows us this morning that while virtually every facet of the private sector in America has been scaling back on debt, the Federal Government has rushed headlong into the breach to fill that void. From the New York Times: Rather than crowding out the private sector, Uncle Sam is now standing in for…

Hot Links: Pulp Tinkerbell

Stuff I’m Reading this Morning… The agenda for economic regulation reform at the G-20 Summit in Pittsburgh isn’t looking too promising. (Economix) A tale of tragic heroism in the Bronx. (NYP) The Healthcare Debate rages on…in an Iron Man comic book. (Ecocomics) My fave post of the week so far: Imagine If Lehman Brothers Had…

The Incredible Shrinking Finance Sector

This is very cool. The New York Times put up a moving infographic that shows the progression of the 29 largest financial firms and how they first shrank since 2007 and then began to grow again. The graph above shows them from the starting point at the market’s peak in October 2007. The one below…

New York Times