Is That Like Charlie Sheen “Winning?” John Paulson, one of the winners of the subprime crisis, is having a bad year. Investors are showing unusual patience. –“Despite Losses, Investors Stick With Paulson“; The New York Times (11/2/2011) Did you know that the housing bust has also had big “winners?” People like hedge fund titan John Paulson,...Read More
Stretching the Social Contract “You can judge a society by how they treat their weakest members.” –Gandhi, Hubert Humphrey and many others I propose a corollary to the above — namely, you can judge a society by the pursuits of its smartest and most talented. When society’s elite apply themselves towards making society better, fairer,...Read More
Make that *200 Mercedes Benzes, at $100k a pop Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz ? My friends all drive Porsches, I must make amends. Worked hard all my lifetime, no help from my friends, So Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz ? –Janis Joplin; lyrics, “Mercedes Benz” It’s hard...Read More
The Quick & Simple Way to Fix Wall Street[Editor’s Note: in a post last week, “Financier, Heal Thyself? Don’t Count On It,” I promised a part 2. This is it. Heads up: if you read this blog purely for real estate content, or want a post with a little levity — skip this one.] Want...Read More
Explanation for Jumpy Markets Want a(nother) reason for heightened stock market volatility? More investors are switching from buy-and-hold to “FIFO”: first in, first out — and ask questions later. Such is the aftermath of a decade-plus of negative overall stock market returns. And that’s before inflation. As I’ve blogged before, welcome to “risk without return.”...Read More
Goldman Sachs: Preying on its Clients (& Taxpayers, too) [Note to Readers: No, this hasn’t become the “anti-Goldman Sachs rant” blog. It’s just that: a) the firm’s conduct is/was so outrageous; b) the economic harm it caused so far-reaching; and c) authorities’ response to the firm’s conduct so feeble (if you can call it that)....Read More
