While on the Ron Smith show today, one caller asked, “So, where would you cut spending?” Given my recent piece, The Virtue of a Big Bang, I was ready. My view is that in a crisis, pain should be shared as evenly and broadly as...
Read More1) After reading a piece on Falkenblog yesterday, I decided to add up all of the profits from Fannie and Freddie over the last 20 years. Ready for how much they made? Ta-da! They lost $114 billion. When writing at RealMoney,...
Read MoreIf you are in the leadership of a municipality, or even a state, I have some advice for you, and it is worth many times more than you will pay to get this advice. This is no time for half measures. If you are just shaving here...
Read MoreRoughly three months later than originally scheduled, the fiscal year 2009 Financial Report of the United States Government came out. I had predicted a few times (latest here) that the final total of debts and unfunded...
Read MoreIf you have to invest a lot of money, you have to think differently than the average investor. The average investor thinks he can easily get in and out of positions. Really large investors, if they are doing more than...
Read MoreAn honest man knows that you can’t get something for nothing. Discounts? Sure, when warranted, but nothing is ever truly free. Someone has to pay. That is one reason why I have been skeptical about Greece and Goldman Sachs. ...
Read MoreWhen does a sovereign or semi-sovereign government default? I have seen three answers: 1) When debt is greater than future seniorage revenue (central bank profits) plus future debt repayments. (Kind of a tautology, but what is...
Read MoreThis post was prompted by Barry’s article Credit Rating Firms: Worthless in a Bull market, Damaging in a Bear Markets. When I was a bond manager, we had a rule for our analysts — ignore the rating, but read the write-up. The...
Read MoreThree years at The Aleph Blog? Has it been that long? Yes, the Shanghai crisis is that far in the past, which foreshadowed our current troubles, though I denied it at the time at my new blog. Why do I write here? Is it for...
Read MoreSome follow-up on my last two posts. I will be talking to those that suggested parties that would be willing to create a definitive bond blog. But, others brought up a good point, which I am well aware of, but forgot for a...
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