If we are now facing 1996 prices for the S&P 500 (making this prediction oddly prescient), why is anyone surprised by talk of NY real estate dipping to – horrors – 2002 prices? With just under 50 units, the building is currently priced around $1,000 per square foot. Minimum bids will probably be set at [...]
Archive for February, 2009
Still Disconnected
Posted in Housing Crisis, Housing Policy, Meltdown on February 28, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Sucker in the Room
Posted in Finance, Meltdown on February 27, 2009 | 6 Comments »
From the AP: Citi will offer to exchange up to $27.5 billion of its existing preferred stock held by private investors at a conversion price of $3.25 per share. That’s a 32 percent premium over Thursday’s closing price of $2.46. Bank of America made an idiotic decision to buy Merrill at a premium, but the [...]
Interesting Sentence
Posted in Housing Crisis, Housing Policy, Obama on February 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
One of Obama’s proposals is to alter the mortgage interest deduction so that no matter the tax bracket, the deduction hits at the 28% bracket. Previously, if you were in the 33% or 35% brackets, you could deduct interest at that bracket. The change is not enormous – the deduction is capped on the principal [...]
Offscreen Voice
Posted in Movies on February 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Freakanomics is asking why animated movies use famous actors to voice the parts. Levitt’s guesses are: Stars are better at speaking than non-stars; Stars don’t charge much for their voices; People like to hear the voices of stars (a variant of #1); Expensive stars are a credible signal of confidence in a movie. I don’t [...]
Argument Against Nationalization
Posted in Finance, Meltdown, Obama on February 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I hope there are better arguments against nationalization. Because saying that it was really difficult is pretty weak when your solution is: The Obama administration should declare that nationalization of any major bank is off the table; that the government stands behind our entire banking system; and that our banks will continue to receive a [...]
Triumph
Posted in Uncategorized on February 26, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Just thinking of the late-night TV reshuffling, which brought to mind the funniest clip in network television history: Wonder if an 11:30pm Conan will tolerate one guest destroying another guest’s career:
David Brooks
Posted in Housing Policy, Miscellaneous on February 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Back when he was fun to read: All we know, or all we think we know, about Red America is that millions and millions of its people live quietly underneath flight patterns, many of them are racist and homophobic, and when you see them at highway rest stops, they’re often really fat and their clothes [...]
Three Card Monte
Posted in China, Meltdown, Obama on February 26, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
This one I simply don’t understand. Supposedly the plan being discussed between the government and AIG would break AIG into three operating units: Asian operations International life insurance US personal lines Those sound like good companies. I wonder why they need to do this. Oh, right, there’s one more: A fourth unit, comprised of AIG’s [...]
Hoosiers
Posted in Basketball, Television on February 25, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
I guess March Madness got started a bit early this year. Grainy video, but you’ll figure it out: Reminds me of this wonderful moment: Too bad Spike Lee wasn’t in Wabash, Indiana last week…
Capital Assistance Program
Posted in Finance, Meltdown, Obama on February 25, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
The next-generation TARP is online at the Treasury. Some highlights: Capital provided under the CAP will be in the form of a preferred security that is convertible into common equity at a 10 percent discount to the price prevailing prior to February 9th. Wonder what the significance of February 9th might be… Anniversary of the [...]
