One Helluva Round-Trip Want to know what stocks are going to do? Forget financial analysis. It’s all about political analysis: on the strength of a European bailout (announced over the weekend), worldwide stocks are going crazy — this time on the upside. Personally, as a long-term, buy-and-hold investor (vs. Wall Street trader), it all has...Read More
Discretionary vs. Non-Discretionary Bailouts Watching the latest round of debt problems emerge — this time involving sovereign states like Greece — reminds me of my not-so-happy experience as a “newbie” landlord a few years ago (turned off by the experience, I quickly sold the property). Immediately after taking title, my (long-term, holdover) renter started presenting...Read More
Hen House Preservation Principles “Goldman to make record bonus payout.”–headline, guardian.co.uk (6/21/09) Principle #1: When presented with overwhelming evidence that the foxes have taken over the hen house . . . stop adding chickens! Principle #2: It’s not hard to figure out — at least in the short run — which foxes stole the most...Read More
Dealing with AIG: More Ideas One day after [the President’s] economic advisers insisted that their hands had been tied by contracts requiring the payments, Mr. Obama ordered the Treasury Department to “pursue every single legal avenue to block these bonuses” and make the American taxpayers whole. –“Obama in Effort to Undo Bonuses at AIG“; The...Read More
AIG Creditors’ Hold on U.S. Treasury “I used to think if there was reincarnation, I wanted to come back as the President or the Pope or a .400 baseball hitter, but now I want to come back as the bond market. You can intimidate everybody.” –James Carville If Carville were to update his answer today,...Read More
AIG Tries to Bury (the latest) Bad News Anyone reading the *Sunday papers is likely to notice the blaring headlines: AIG senior executives are being paid millions in bonuses. That, notwithstanding the almost $200 billion of taxpayer money already injected into the company. What’s interesting, though, is how the news first broke online, then changed...Read More
