Archive for September, 2007

  • The Fed’s Irresponsible Move
    , September 21st, 2007 at 2:20 pm

    Here’s a dissenting view from Vitaliy N. Katsenelson: I’ve seen this movie before, and it doesn’t end pretty. That’s what I thought on Sept. 18 [...]

  • Wall Street Turns 20
    , September 21st, 2007 at 12:54 pm

    The iconic movie turns 20. Since its release in December, 1987, “Wall Street” has been required viewing for anyone working in finance and a standard [...]

  • Questions for Greenspan
    , September 21st, 2007 at 10:28 am

    Caroline Baum has some questions for Alan Greenspan. Here are a few: 4. In that same vein, you write you were “struck by how relatively [...]

  • Cyclical Divergence
    , September 20th, 2007 at 2:54 pm

    Merrill Lynch tracks two cyclical indexes, one for Early Cyclicals (^XE) and one for Late Cyclicals (^XT). The Earlies are mostly big box retailers like [...]

  • A Tale of Two Banks
    , September 20th, 2007 at 10:39 am

    Profits at Goldman Sachs (GS) were up 79%. The company earned $6.13 a share, far more than the $4.35 Wall Street was expecting. “They dominate [...]

  • Connection?
    , September 20th, 2007 at 9:43 am

    $5 Bill to Have Splashes of Purple, Gray Dollar Falls to Record Low

  • A Turn for Large-Caps
    , September 19th, 2007 at 1:01 pm

    This hasn’t been a pleasant decade for large-cap stocks. Consider General Electric (GE). The company’s earnings-per-share this year will be about 75% higher than in [...]

  • Greenspan on the Daily Show
    , September 19th, 2007 at 9:26 am

    Here’s Alan Greenspan on the Daily Show last night. Jon Stewart basically gets him to admit that the Fed is not consistent with free market [...]

  • Looking at the Fed’s Decision
    , September 19th, 2007 at 8:53 am

    I don’t quite understand the strong reactions to yesterday’s move by the Federal Reserve. To me, it seems perfectly reasonable for the Fed to cut [...]

  • Missy Francis
    , September 19th, 2007 at 7:53 am

    Jon Friedman sits down with CNBC’s Melissa Francis: Francis doesn’t include her childhood TV fame anywhere in her official biography. “The only people who recognize [...]

  • Chart of the Day
    , September 19th, 2007 at 7:37 am

    Leucadia National Corporation (LUK) compared with the S&P 500:

  • 50 Points!
    , September 18th, 2007 at 2:16 pm

    Wow!! The Federal Open Market Committee decided today to lower its target for the federal funds rate 50 basis points to 4-3/4 percent. Economic growth [...]

  • The Importance of Interest Rates
    , September 18th, 2007 at 1:24 pm

    If you’re new to investing or if you’re simply curious as to why us bloggers jabber on incessantly about the Federal Reserve and interest rates, [...]

  • The New York Times Hits a 10-Year Low
    , September 18th, 2007 at 10:03 am

  • Greenspan’s Genius
    , September 18th, 2007 at 9:29 am

    Elizabeth Spiers looks at the Maestro: Americans have a long history of confusing inscrutability with genius. The less you say, the conventional wisdom goes, the [...]

  • Economic Myths
    , September 17th, 2007 at 12:21 pm

    This is a good time to repost this. In December, Nobel Prizer Edward Prescott listed five economic myths in the Wall Street Journal. Myth #1 [...]

  • AOL Is Moving to New York
    , September 17th, 2007 at 10:34 am

    I was always amused that AOL referred to its headquarters as being in “Dulles, Virginia.” Before it got that name, I tended to think of [...]

  • Northern Rock
    , September 17th, 2007 at 10:28 am

    For the past few days, depositors in Britain’s Northern Rock have lined up to withdraw their money. Now the government says it will guarantee all [...]

  • Greenspan Unplugged
    , September 17th, 2007 at 9:31 am

    Alan Greenspan is speaking this week at GW. I may go to see him, but I’m really not that interested. A few years ago, I [...]

  • Barney Frank on the Subprime Crisis
    , September 14th, 2007 at 12:25 pm

    From the Boston Globe: Well-functioning financial markets depend on transparency and confidence that institutions are playing by clearly defined rules. Both were in short supply [...]