derivatives

This past weekend I saw the film Food Inc, which I recommend highly to anyone looking to see how deregulation has affected industries other than finance.  While the subject of Food Inc was how the industrialization of food policy in…

'Stoned wallabies make crop circles' - BBC News "Australian wallabies are eating opium poppies and creating crop circles as they hop around "as high as a kite", a government official has said." Is an Ugly…

The crucifixion of Latvia - Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph"Contrary to revisionist talk, Argentina was not a basket case. Its imbalances were no worse than those of the Baltics, Balkans, Spain, or Greece, and arguably better. It ran…

Today vs. the 1980-82 Recession - Menzie Chin "While the job losses, foreclosures, stock declines and other casualties of the current recession have been very painful, substantially more bad economic news is needed to make this…

I was on the BBC yesterday talking autos and my commentary was almost entirely political.  So, as we await the likely General Motors bankruptcy, I think it bears discussing how political this process has been and will continue to be.…

This is a very good explanatory piece from CNBC on how counterparty credit risk makes the credit default swap market a financial weapon of mass destruction.  Note they are not talking about eliminating the CDS market, but merely…

You may have noticed that the news cycle has turned down: U.K. manufacturing down, bank stocks down, Chinese inflation and exports down. All of this points to the underlying weakness in the global economy. I should also point out that a…

FT.com - Spanish banks lead the way in risk management Spain's banks are beig praised for risk management, much as Canadian banks are. The Cajas are a different story. "Managers believe that this intense board-level focus on risk is one…

From the London School of Economics website: Below is an audio recording of approximately 78 minutes where Gillian Tett takes us inside the shadowy world of complex finance and derivatives and explains how the business of slicing and…

Australian real estate values rise House and flat prices in Australia increased in value by 1.6% in the first three months of the year, according to RP Data-Rismark, helped by a scarcity of supply, lower interest rates and incentives to…