Alea

Abnormal Returns

Wednesday links: out of options

Fannie and Freddie are having to pay up to place their debt and are rapidly “running out of options.”  (WSJ.com, NYTimes.com also Market Movers) The consensus is now that Fannie and Freddie will be nationalized, in some form or ...

Going Private

The Spiral - Part V - The Board

Part V of the Going Private miniseries "The Spiral." The Board of Directors is increasingly perturbed with the Chairman and CEO, but their loyalties are difficult to shed. Self-interest also prevents any meaningful change. Meanwhile, the Chairman and CEO presents ...

Stumbling and Mumbling

Money & morals

Here’s a paradox. One the one hand, there’s good laboratory evidence that money can change people’s behaviour for the worse, making them less likely to co-operate (pdf) with others and more likely to cheat. But on the other hand, there’s...

Paul Krugman

The python theory of inflation

This Python didn’t process dinner very well Richard Fisher, of the Dallas Fed, on inflation: One could reasonably deduce from recent price reversals in oil and food prices that they overshot on the upside and that their price run-up was ...

Portfolio.com: Market Movers

Retail Datapoints of the Day

Prime Fifth Avenue retail rents, per square foot, in 2000: $675 Prime Fifth Avenue retail rents, per square foot, in 2007: $1,500 Prime Fifth Avenue retail rents, per square foot, in 2007: $2,500 Square footage of the Saks Fifth Avenue ...

The Aleph Blog

Nonidentical Twins: Solvency and Liquidity

“It’s not a solvency problem; it’s a liquidity problem.”  So many people say regarding some financial firms that are on the ropes.  I’ve never liked that way of expressing the problem.  Let me explain why. When does a firm typically ...

FT Alphaville

Lehman: Thou shalt deny me thrice before the Cox crows

CNBC's Charlie Gasparino broke news yesterday of the latest capital raising attempt for Lehman brothers: a warrant offering a 25 per cent stake in Lehman and a 70 per cent stake in its investment management business, Neuberger Berman. The twist ...

Le blog d'éconoclaste

passage radio

Sur RTL, pour l'émission "les auditeurs ont la parole", aujourd'hui (07-08) à 13h10. Au menu : l'emploi et la durée du travail après la parution de l'enquête INSEE. EDIT (15h) : quelques liens complémentaires.