Orangutans learn to trade favours BBC
Sport Meets Survival: An Iditarod Without Dogs New York Times
Madoff, MLK, Buddha And Elusive Nature of Self-Interest Francine McKenna
Can parochial concerns undermine the global adjustment? It has before Michael Pettis (hat tip reader Michael)
Iceland gives Christmas frosty reception Financial Times
Ruling says Madoff investors must pay up Times Online
How Much Has Harvard Really Lost? Huffington Post (hat tip Felix Salmon)
Are modern recessions different? David Altig, Macroblog
Antidote du jour:
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Unrelated, but anyways:
If you don’t have anything to read over the holidays, go and buy John Kennet’s Galbraith’s “The Great Crash 1929”. Whole chapters could have just “stock” replaced with “houses” or “ABSes” and have exactly the same validity. Even the equivalent of Madoff (Krueger and others) can be found. As he writes “One of the uses of depression is the exposure of what auditors fail to find”.
From Bloomberg: “U.S. Banks May Turn to Asian Bond Investors to Plug Funding Gap.” In the story we read, “U.S. financial institutions sold more than $100 billion of government-backed notes in dollars, euros and British pounds since Oct. 14…” So the U.S. treasury is already, in effect, issuing bonds in foreign currencies.
a, quoting bloomie: “From Bloomberg: “U.S. Banks May Turn to Asian Bond Investors to Plug Funding Gap.” In the story we read, “U.S. financial institutions sold more than $100 billion of government-backed notes in dollars, euros and British pounds since Oct. 14…”
That is interesting. Previously, the US banks mostly only borrowed in Yen by issuing so-called samurai bonds to take advantage of ZIRP, or by financing foreign operations with debt denominated in the local currency (or hedged into that currency). For example, Goldman Sachs issued ¥148.5 billion of samurai bonds in January 2008, and Citi issued ¥186.5 billion in samurai bonds in June 2008, after issuing ¥270 billion of samurai bonds in June of 2007. GE, JPM, and AFC all issued large quantities of samurai bonds.
If these banks are borrowing in non-USD denominated curencies to finance US operations, that is very interesting. Why should the US taxpayer take on this kind of currency risk?
The article on recessions was interesting, and touched on some points that often cross my mind when thinking about recessions. First is the rather vague definiton (actually, undefined) criteria. I look back on the 70’s, and the whole decade was, if not a recession, than collapsing standards of living. If you burrow in the unemployment statistics, and ponder terms like “discouraged workers” one sees that most of what is written is a vast attempt to compare apples to oranges.
Re: the Harvard endowment
Am I the only one who finds it amusing that, for many
who live in “gated communities” they now find that
their money also lives in a parallel universe, the only
difference being that wheras in the former, the gates
are to keep people out, in the latter the gatekeeper’s job is to keep the money in.
Hey Yves,
Them cats playing in the igloo reminded me to wish you a very merry xmas and holiday season.
If it weren’t for the cats, I’d have forgotten my manners
Cheers!
Yves,
Thank you for all the info you have provided for the past year.
Please have a very merry holiday.
Anyone interested in Bob Prechter speaking before Georgia Legislature 12.10.08 can download the clip – Bob speaks 30 minutes into the session 12.10.08. He states current pledged amount by Fed and Treasury is close to $9 Trillion. http://www.legis.state.ga.us/legis/2007_08/house/Committees/economicDev/economicArchives.htm
AIG to buy $16 billion in CDOs to avoid having to pay on CDS contracts it wrote.
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/081224/aig_cdo.html
Have they ever purchased hurricane damaged houses to avoid having to pay on homeowners policies?
A very Merry Virtual Christmas to all the globalized families and any and all associated tiny animals who have visions of Higgs boson particles dancing around in pseudo-Euclidean spaces. Cats, I’m friggn so tired of cat metaphors and associations with frozen credit markets…
Although we may all be physically, mentally and spiritually separated, fragmented and pulled apart like the Treasury Yield Curve Black Hole — which is drifting along in an un-planned direction (after The Bush Coup) we should all remember that negative yields and negative eigenvector decompositions are like pseudo-Riemannian metrics where values can be positive, negative or zero.
Also see: negative entropy
To doc holliday: Good to see you back here and posting. The outflow of your negative entropy is always a delight (especially when it’s in Russian).
To Yves: Season’s Greetings and warm thanks for running such an insightful blog. You should mention the name of your favorite charity – I’d be happy to put them in my will, which will be more flush due to profits I’ve made from what I’ve learned from you and the sharp cookies who are drawn here and post.
To all others, scattered around cyberspace, thanks for your virtual company and conversation – have a wonderful holiday, whichever one you may celebrate (aside to the Pagans – Happy Belated Solstice!)
Yeh hay, it Christmas day in Australia !!! It’s a balmy tropical, day in the north, kids have trashed their presents, beers chilling, food ready for lunch – the world can go the hell today, I don’t care. Best of the festive season to all, take care and blog for a better world.
Hey NDK, have a cold beer on ice waiting for you in this part of the Commonwealth…
An enjoyable Holiday to all, may you feast, laugh with your belly and cherish each other.
Skippy
Nice Christmas present for Bill Gross and Cerberus:
GMAC Granted Bank Status as U.S. Seeks to Save GM
From Santa(Ben) to Pimco and Cerberus
Yves, Doc, and Commentariat,
Merry Festivus!
Re Modern Recessions Different???: I caught Talib on the TV just yesterday, or the day before, or maybe it was the day after, or even The Day the Earth Stood Still, and “He” said: “The Great Depression” is a sample of one. That is almost exactly a quote, I do not paraphrase much at all…
A sample of one…
Thanks, I’ve read Popper. When I get to the bottom I go back to the top of the slide where I stop and turn and I go for a ride till I get to the bottom and I see you again…..
Yep, I still read everything put here.
It’s be the most heartfelt gift I’d receive this year, Glen, but I’m spending this Christmas with friends in Midtown. I always wondered how you folks got in the mood this time of year, and if it’s Aussie Santettes in furry red bikinis and plenty of beer, count me in for ’09. Happy Holidays to you and all our other naked friends. You bring understanding, meaning, and entertainment to what would otherwise be some truly selfish and soulless times.
That was ndk, still getting the hang of this mobile and it’s aggresively stupid autocorrect. Not even New Year’s Eve, so that’s the only excuse I got. Holiday cheer’s on me. :p
В области математики, интегралом неотрицательной функции можно рассматривать в простейшем случае, как район между график этой функции, и X-оси. Лебегу интеграции является математической конструкцией, что расширяет неотъемлемой частью более широкого класса функций, но и расширяет домены, на которых эти функции могут быть определены. Он уже давно понял, что для неотрицательных функций с гладкой достаточно графике (например, непрерывных функций на замкнутых ограниченных интервалов) площадь под кривой можно определить как составной и с использованием методов приближения регионе полигоны.