As Goldman and the Senate Committee on Investigations are duking out The Battle of the E-Mails, with each side claiming the other has painted a misleading picture, it is becoming pretty clear that Goldman, contrary to its sanctimonious twattle about putting clients first, actually puts its fees first. This should come as no surprise to […]
Read more...Dear patient readers, Due to volcano worries (as in doubts I’d be returning from London on anything faster than a banana boat), the bookstore event at Book Culture is now on for May 13 at 7:00 PM. Book Culture is at 112th Street between Broadway and Amsterdam. See you there!
Read more...I would normally not do this, but I met some readers at a pub this evening (a very nice chat on a wide range of topics, and they were all good sports about listening to my youthful adventures, like producing a Wagner Ring cycle with Peter Sellars). Even though I had featured the trailer for […]
Read more...By Andrew Dittmer, a mathematician with hedge fund experience, and Richard Smith, a UK based capital markets IT consultant Readers of this blog are by now familiar with the incredible story of how a single hedge fund (Magnetar) managed to play a shockingly extensive role in inflating the housing bubble in 2006-2007. The story was […]
Read more...By Tom Adams, an attorney and former monoline executive, and Yves Smith One issue that continues to puzzle us, in looking at the sudden furor about seemingly duplicitous dealings by investment banks in the real estate related CDO business, is that the focus thus far has been primarily on the investment banks that packaged and […]
Read more...By Yves Smith and Tom Adams, an attorney and former monoline executive Both the traditional media and the blogosphere have taken an almost obsessive interest in the suit the SEC filed against Goldman last week with regard to one of its synthetic real estate related CDOs, Abacus 2007 AC1. Goldman’s shares and the stock market […]
Read more...Fellow blogger Ed Harrison was so kind as to feature this interview on his site, and since some NC readers may not have seen it there, I realized I was remiss in not posting it myself (and reflects my generally backward priorities, of not giving enough emphasis to marketing). While I have only a small […]
Read more...By Tom Adams, an attorney and former monoline executive; Andrew Dittmer, a mathematician who has worked for a hedge fund; Richard Smith, a UK-based capital markets IT consultant, and Yves Smith As described in ECONNED and in later reports by ProPublica, a Chicago-based hedge fund, Magnetar Capital, entered into a program of sponsoring subprime-based CDOs […]
Read more...Magnetar 1) A neutron star with an intense magnetic field, capable of emitting toxic radiation across galaxies 2) A hedge fund, the single market player most responsible for the severity of the 2008 financial crisis, through the toxic instruments it created Rahm Emanuel 1) White House Chief of Staff 2) Politician selected by Magnetar’s CEO […]
Read more...Dear Patient Readers, We are finally having some book events! The first is informal, a meet-up in London. My local experts are still debating the options, but it will be in Mayfair or St. James’s at 6:30 PM next Wednesday, April 14. I will post details here before the weekend. The second is in New […]
Read more...The current number one non-fiction best seller, Michael Lewis’ The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine, addresses the question “Who got it right? Who saw the real estate market for the black hole it would become, and eventually made billions from that perception?” It is hailed as meeting the usual Lewis high standards of engaging […]
Read more...I chatted at the Book Salon on FireDogLake on Saturday (yes I screwed up completely in not notifying Naked Capitalism readers). The conversation was hosted by masaccio and led to a wide ranging discussion. The chat started with his summary of the book: Yves Smith brings the same clear and concise writing to ECONned: How […]
Read more...A very talented movie/commerical/trailer editor, who for some bizarre reason insists on going nameless (but if you want his coordinates, don’t hesitate to ping me) assisted by Ben Fisher in a major role (finding images and video clips) and Richard Smith in a minor role (extensive sanity checking) put this together. This may inspire McLuhan-esque […]
Read more...Reader Sundog suggested I gather reader comments on ECONNED and update them weekly, particularly since I am answering questions. In the future, I’ll do this on slower news days (probably Saturday AM into Sunday), but figured I should start now. Also, radio/TV bookings are just starting, will also keep you updated. I was just on […]
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