market wizards

Below is a link to an article I wrote about the Bank of England's aggressive 1.5% interest rate cut that appeared in yesterday's Guardian newspaper.The unkindest cut, GuardianThe long and short of it is that I am very skeptical about the…

So, here we are one day into a brave new world, having seen America elect Barack Obama President. You might think the clouds would part, the sun would come out and all would be well with the world. Yet, it seems like quite the opposite is…

Nassim Nicholas Taleb, the sometimes obnoxious writer of the "Black Swan" is now a fund manager. His fund focuses on hedging against "Black Swan" events that are deemed highly unlikely by purchasing thing like out-of-the-money puts.…

The U.S. Federal Reserve is tasked with watching inflation while keeping the economy growing. This dual mandate is a juggling act no mortal could manage successfully for long. The result has been a Fed which has largely erred on the side…

Teddy Forstmann, one of the co-Founders of LBO giant Forstmann Little & Company, sounded the alarm earlier this year on the credit crisis. In an article from the Wall Street Journal that I chronicled here, Forstmann warned of impended…

Subscribe to Our News Feed CBS posts $12.5 billion loss with writedown - Reuters NEW YORK (Reuters) - CBS Corp reported a massive quarterly loss on Thursday, as a rapidly deteriorating advertising market tarnished the TV and radio…

In a recent post I said that I was selectively scanning for value plays at this level. A reader asked me the legitimate question: "Why would anybody buy anything in this market?" Basically, he was questioning my sanity.I am entirely sane…

I caught a story in the Wall Street Journal today about Paul Volcker's impact on the Obama campaign that bears passing on (hat tip Barry Ritholtz). One reason people have become more comfortable with Obama over time is because his economic…

I love Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan Chase's CEO. He really tells it like it is. At last quarter's earnings call, he called a spade a spade and said "prime looks terrible" in reference to prime mortgage loans. This quarter his quote is even…

In 1999, Edward Chancellor wrote a wonderful book called "Devil Take The Hindmost," which I recommend to anyone who is interested in the history of bubbles, financial speculation, and market panics. In it, Chancellor traces the origins of…