Illiquidity is a function of total transaction costs, which can be considered barriers to entry. (and exit…) Not everything can be liquid; not everything should be liquid; not everything will be liquid. I ran into the...
Read MoreIn one sense, but not in every sense, this is the best book on the crisis. I give Yves Smith credit for diving deep on economics and finance, and laying bare the intellectual bankruptcy there. Simon Johnson and James...
Read MoreIn a long bull market, leverage builds up in hidden ways within corporations, and does not get revealed in any significant way until the bear phase comes. If I were to change that sentence, I would change the word...
Read MoreHistory has a nasty tendency to not repeat, when everyone is relying on it to repeat. History has a nasty tendency to repeat, when everyone is relying on it not to repeat. Thus another Great Depression is possible, if not...
Read MoreI hate working in an information vacuum. Look, I lack the advanced analytics of major Wall Street firms. A Bloomberg terminal is powerful, but not as good as the major investment banks, or third party specialists. My...
Read MoreAfter losing their court cases to keep bailout data secret, the Federal Reserve has finally complied with the minimum of what is lawful, and published PDFs of the Maiden Lane Portfolios. The data is minimal –...
Read MoreSimon Johnson and James Kwak write a popular blog, The Baseline Scenario. They have written a very credible book on the crisis, which I have . It covers all of the bases in a methodical way, and there was...
Read MoreI’ve thought about the issue for a while, and I want to summarize what the key areas for bank reform are, so that you all can know why legislation like the Dodd Bill won’t achieve much. There are five key areas...
Read MoreTonight’s rule: Massive debt issuance on a sector-wide basis will usually have a slump following it, due to a capacity glut. If you are a bond manager, it pays to do what is difficult. Buy proportionately less...
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