“A View From the (Almost) Top” Capitalizing on top-tier home-buyers’ thirst for privacy, exclusivity and vertiginous height, developers are now selling multiple penthouse-like units in new buildings, set stories below the actual penthouse.” —”A View From the (Almost) Top”; The Wall Street Journal. Ok, so it’s not a market niche I specialize in. And, I...Read More
Ground-scraping interest rates turn savers into speculators and quarantined millennials into day traders. They facilitate overborrowing, suppress market signals, misdirect investment dollars, and promote the dubious business of turning well-financed public companies into heavily indebted private ones.” –James Grant, “Powell Has Become the Fed’s Dr. Feelgood”; The Wall Street Journal 6/28/2020. Except for Jim Grant’s...Read More
“A View From the (Almost) Top” “Capitalizing on top-tier home-buyers’ thirst for privacy, exclusivity and vertiginous height, developers are now selling multiple penthouse-like units in new buildings, set stories below the actual penthouse.” –“A View From the (Almost) Top“; The Wall Street Journal (4/18/19). Ok, so it’s not a market niche I specialize in. And,...Read More
Interest Rates a Double-Sided Coin “Companies are paying the most in nearly a decade for some types of short-term borrowing, the latest threat to the U.S. economic expansion.” –“Climb in Key Rate Pinches Borrowers”; The Wall Street Journal (3/28/2018). Funny, I would have put a different spin on the news that companies — many enjoying record...Read More
News Corporation Spin-Off Maybe corporations really are people (the Supreme Court says they are). Egocentric people. Headline News. Not. I couldn’t figure out why, practically the entire last week, The Wall Street Journal was giving (too) prominent play to minute developments in News Corporation’s spin-off plans — especially against a backdrop of truly headline news...Read More
Did Wronged Consumers Misbuy it? Lloyds Banking Group PLC will reduce some of the bonuses awarded to top executives in 2010 following an insurance misselling scandal that resulted in the U.K bank handing hefty compensation to consumers, a person familiar with the matter said Monday. Last year, Lloyds set aside £3.2 billion ($5.06 billion) to compensate...Read More
