Dive into the archives.
- Financial Regression in the Service of Banking
Very rarely does Finance so precisely mirror Psychoanalysis.
Yet, this week, the financial world both in the UK and in the US achieved a milestone: the peculiar mixture of positively valued and negatively valued assets upon the balance sheets of our quickly failing banks— an unsteady blend which might be seen as “ambivalent”—is to be split. [...]
- What Banks Know
Some years ago, before Depression panic gripped the world, I had the opportunity to consult with several members of the banking industry. Each was involved in an obscure area of work, destined to become headline news within a few years. And whether discussing complex derivative trades or the structuring of collateralized debt obligation tranches, each [...]
- Mister Market
Mr Market, goes the common wisdom, suffers from bipolar disorder. We join him in his enthusiasms—momentarily gratifying our greed and desire as we attempt to amplify wealth; and then our stomachs tighten and grip as his mood swing plummets to strip our dreams. We say the losses are on “paper”; but bitterly remember that the [...]
- Observations on Getting it Done
Here is the story: attempting to conserve funds in the economic downturn, a downwardly mobile “middle class” neighbor withdrew her car from its accustomed parking space in a garage a block or so away. In Manhattan, this little bit of economic conservation is worth about $6000 after-tax dollars, annually. It was simple: either the car [...]
