Finals? But what of the kittens?

"Surely you could study later"

More on the Trading Tax. UBB ponders some implications on the size of the financial sector and the trading tax. Mainly, if it would even stop "speculation" as opposed to "investment", and the disturbing thought that the financial sector is exactly the right size for a globalized economy.

For Every Action... The Epicurean Dealmaker ponders the UK's new tax on bonuses and a windfall tax for GS. Also, whoopie cushions.

Captain Blackbeard's College of Piracy
— Ye Olde Course Catalogue, Spring '10. McSweeney's.

Two from Felix "I can't believe my last name is Salmon and why am I wearing a purple suit" Salmon:

Information consumption charts of the day.

Why homes are not investments. As someone previously on the frontlines of both the housing and investments war, I have a sympathy to Salmon's view, insofar as homes were thought too much as an investment. They are, more rightly, a store of value that, when maintained, tends not to depreciate like, say, a 1993 Ford Taurus.

the geography of a recession. by latoya egwuekwe

By contrast, other news organizations have trouble with percentages

Negotiate Anything. Lifehacker. One should, I believe, attempt to skim lifehacker at least once a fortnight.

The Next Bubble. Kedrosky worries about the collapsing bubble in books about the financial crisis.

The Persistence of Poverty. with Rortybomb's thoughts and a discussion of increasing marginal utility.

Did Subjectivity Play a Role in CDO Credit Ratings? Your SSRN paper du jour.

The operating principle of blog-counting is that you remain an ongoing concern

emerging from midterms and vacations. all of November, to be sure.

NYMag on AIG, Feinberg, and exec pay

James Kwak on Trefis and KaChing, some web 2.0 start ups that do some neat, but, Kwak argues, ultimately useless and/or harmful stuff. the original NYTimes Article.

Krugman on taxing speculators. I can't remember where I saw it now (probably UBB or Epicurean Dealmaker), but the point was that the market consists of three people, people who think they're getting out at the top, people who think they're buying at the bottom, and people being paid to provide liquidity. My sense is that Krugman is giving the benefits of speculation little credit, but I only have a Grammy, and Krugman the Nobel. Arvind Subramanian agrees with Mr. Krugman. Alas, the only people who agree with me seems to be clusterstock, which is usually a symbol that I'm wrong.

Discretion and financial regulation. Interfluidity. "An enduring truth about financial regulation is this: Given the discretion to do so, financial regulators will always do the wrong thing." it gets better from there.

Department of "Markets are Everywhere": Indus Valley's Bronze Age civilisation 'had first sophisticated financial exchange system'


Even Adam Smith likes cats.

10.26.09

Seattle Times on Washington Mutual. Kerry Killinger moved headlong into riskier lending throughout the bubble. File under: management matters, possibly.

Why San Francisco is No. 1 for Young Professionals. Forbes.

Asian Leaders Focus on Freer Trade. NYTimes.

A few other pieces I read over the weekend.

Networks Too Big for Their Own Good. NYTimes. Build a network, but make it valuable.

Estimate Revisions and "The Earnings Season Racket". Bespoke. Are companies beating estimates or are estimates too low?

Abnormal Returns on Buy and Hold Investing. A great summary, and a great takeaway. Related: Do you think you can time the market? CWS.

Lab Rats, Michael Jordan, and Wall St Pay. Does more compensation always make people better at their jobs?

10.23.09 Shocking Friday Links

Shocking Cats

Okay, silliness aside (for now):

Insider Trading or Legitimate Market Research? Prof Bainbridge. The Galleon insider trading case intersects all of these issues, and this is a great summary of legal issues surrounding it and insider trading in general.

Jeffrey Chiang Will Be Receiving No New Offers Of Employment. Dealbreaker. A reminder as to the importance of ethics and truth telling. Also, the incestuous community of finance. We all know each other, or we can find out.

Too Big To Fail Policy. Economics of Contempt. for you aggressive readers out there.

Information is Stimulus. Interfluidity. This is a good point by Mr. Waldman. Namely that expectations and belief in actions/reaction will move the market. There was a lot of talk in September 08 about "making the rules of the game clear" because traders/investors can't make rational bets if they don't know the rules of the game.

How Freakonomics is Ruining the Dismal Science. TNR. For the record, I like the Freakonomics blog, if only because they had the "Thugs watch The Wire" series.

Toward a New Theory of the Cost of Equity Capital. Aleph Blog. I don't understand this enough to say anything smart about it, but hopefully in 7 weeks I will be able to look down my nose at it with derision.

And, in the our "Local News Posts", So You're Leaving San Francisco, which is in reality more a love song TO San Francisco.

10.19.09 “It is not from the benevolence of the butcher, the brewer, or the baker, that we can expect our dinner..."

John Cassidy's article in the New Yorker on the Behavioral basis for booms and busts. Related, from John Carney, Why Wall St Always Blows It.

Andrew Ross Sorkin on the financial collapse. NPR. He's doing the rounds for his most recent book, some of which is excerpted to vanity fair here.

Brazil Foreign Investment Tax Risks Harming Local Capital Markets, as was mentioned in our finance class today.

John Carney on shorting and naked shorting (reposted). Of course, short selling was banned for a few weeks at the height of the financial crisis last year. Barry Ritholtz has no kind words about it. And Paul Kedrosky examines some of the papers that came out analyzing the effect of the ban. In short "market quality decreased, spreads widened and volatility worsened in non-shortable names."

mental health break

I have been listening to this every morning before school.

I walk out of the house with a strut in my stuff.

10/07/09 I thence Invoke thy aid to my adventrous Song, That with no middle flight intends to soar Above th' Aonian Mount

A follow up to the short presentation today:

Going Private: Memoirs of a Sardonic Prive Equity Professional. This is a direct link to her "getting in" series of posts. Look at the faq and intro guide as well for more "grunt's view" of the PE industry.

PE Hub. Online forum for PE and PE issues.

Dealbreaker. Wall St gossip rag.

Cause its my Birthday. In which two nerds throw parties in cities to benefit malaria prevention. If you would like the Mitchell Friedman Cohort 2 mix CD, talk to me. A $5 donation will get you the mix CD of all the songs that Mitchell has mentioned throughout the class.