Archive - Apr 29, 2010 - Blog entry

If you look beyond the Greek crisis, you have to ask yourself where are we heading and will the current form of Casino Capitalism survive? Greece is the birthplace of democracy, will it also be the birthplace of a new form of capitalism?

All assets are going up, period. Fundamental research has become an irrelevance. Is Obama a moderate in liberal clothing? The Fed’s need to inflate new bubbles to rescue us from the old ones. Listen to the wakeup call, and adjust your risk controls accordingly. Keep a hair trigger on your mouse for when the dreaded “Risk Off” trade hits.

Gold, now?

I just saw an offering of the famous Screaming Eagle 1997 cab for $52,000 for the case. Parker gave it 100 points. I passed. I don't think anyone told the purveyors that the market has loosened up a bit. Wine prices are falling and vineyards are going into foreclosure.

In light of the fact that Goldman Sachs actively trades against its clients, it is now high time for the U.S. federal prosecutors probe into Goldman’s trading practice of Baidu IPOs as well.

"Too Big to Fail is Too Big to Regulate"

Where were you on March 4th? It was an important date in history. It might just have been a tipping point.

These nominees are prominent members of the Washington-Wall Street-Academia Economics Complex, whose members shift between government, Wall Street, and academia. All of the nominees are Keynesian economists. They are known as regulators, technocrats, and inflationists.

If I'm going to carry around fiat money, this design is my choice.

Hands down, our favorite quote on investor’s lack of historical memory comes from Jeremy Grantham who said: “We will learn an enormous amount in the very short term, quite a bit in the medium term and absolutely nothing in the long term. That would be the historical precedent.” In this spirit, we highlight the lessons that should have been learned from the turmoil of 2008, complements of Seth Klarman. The excerpt below is from his annual letter. While most market participants have immediately forgotten these lessons, more prudent investors (who may still suffer from short term memory loss) should consider dusting this list off on an annual basis!

European pension funds hired more fund managers in 2009 than in the previous year to take advantage of bargains in crisis-hit asset classes, a study by Mercer said on Tuesday. And PE shop Candover, which has been slashing costs in the face of a cash shortage, is in talks with the Alberta Investment Management Company (Aimco). Despite the flows and deals, I doubt PE will stage a serious comeback.

Ponzi's are not just of Italian origin!

Goldman employees have incriminated the company in the quest for compensation, but I have the solution...

The ongoing Greek debt crisis has revived the old arguments that all national governments need monetary sovereignty. So, what if Greece had stayed with the Drachma, and never switched to the euro? Would this debt crisis be averted?

What's another $100b matter at this point?