I have never been a big believer in electronics extended warranties; my general perspective is that if a device works for the first couple of weeks, it is likely to work for the rest of its useful life. Unfortunately, just before heading off to Europe I seem to have had my black swan moment: my [...]
Archive for May, 2009
Technology
Posted in Domestic Policy, Miscellaneous, Obama, Politics on May 30, 2009 | 2 Comments »
Good Lord
Posted in Meltdown on May 9, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Buried in the fine print of the Journal…good Lord, is there anything the Fed does that is remotely honest? I know that lying has pumped up the markets, but if the price is that there is absolutely no government agency with any credibility, is it worth it? We have argued for decades that the special [...]
Rotting Corpse
Posted in Meltdown, Obama on May 8, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Fannie Mae may be dead, but unfortunately, it has not gone anywhere: Fannie Mae, the troubled mortgage finance company, reported a first-quarter loss of $23.2 billion on Friday. The mortgage giant also reported that it submitted a request for $19 billion from the Treasury Department to cover its losses. That followed a request earlier this [...]
Other People’s Perspectives
Posted in Meltdown on May 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
Zero Hedge keeps publishing market analysis; I’ll keep pirating it. David Rosenberg (Merrill Lynch Bank of America departed): Risk is much higher now than it was 18 weeks ago The nine-week S&P 500 surge from 666 at the March lows to 920 as of yesterday has all but retraced the prior nine-week decline from the [...]
Hobbits
Posted in Miscellaneous on May 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
This is really weird – and no, it is not April 1: Scientists have found more evidence that the Indonesian “Hobbit” skeletons belong to a new species of human – and not modern pygmies.
Scoreboard
Posted in Meltdown, Obama on May 6, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
From Calculated Risk, the current status of the make-believe stress test. You can be confident each number was derived after careful consultation with Rahm Emanuel, whose financial acumen was probably best exemplified in his dance degree from Sarah Lawrence and his decision to leave the Clinton Administration in 1998 to get in a couple of [...]
Chrysler
Posted in Corruption, Industrial Policy, Labor Policy, Meltdown, Obama on May 4, 2009 | 1 Comment »
So far I have stayed away from the Chrysler debate, largely because I’m pretty sure the company ceased operating when Daimler bought it in the least equal merger of equals since England and Scotland tied up in 1707. Like its predecessor, DaimlerChrysler created an army of exiles from the target and ended with the realization [...]
Marketing Genius
Posted in Foreigners, Industrial Policy, Labor Policy on May 4, 2009 | 1 Comment »
FIAT’s share price has more than doubled in the past couple of months, passing €8/share on news that it might buy Opel. Well, not really buy Opel. More “get someone to give them Opel,” the same way the government is trying to give FIAT Chrysler in exchange for Chrysler getting access to crappy technology they [...]
Terrible Criminals
Posted in Military on May 3, 2009 | 1 Comment »
Take a good look at this: Is that really the best target for the aspiring pirates of the world?
Very Nice
Posted in Meltdown on May 2, 2009 | Leave a Comment »
So Morgan Stanley has decided to mix it up with BTA, the largest bank of the tourist paradise of Kazakhstan. I’ll let the FT set the stage: [E]arlier this year, when funding dried up for Kazakh banks, BTA fell under the control of the government. Initially BTA wanted to keep servicing its loans, and its [...]
