Archive for November, 2009

  • Seriously – These are Real Stories
    Posted by on November 30th, 2009 at 10:22 pm, Comments: 0

    As if Foreign Policy naming Ben Bernanke their top Global Thinker wasn’t absurd/ironic/laughable enough, Zerohedge brings us the announcement out of Rochdale Securities that they [...]

  • Mind Boggling – The Top Global Thinker ?!?!!?
    Posted by on November 30th, 2009 at 5:20 pm, Comments: 0

    From Michael Panzner, writing on The Big Picture comes a post he titled simply “Say What?”: “Foreign Policy has just published a list of its “top 100 [...]

  • If You Were Stranded On a Desert Island
    Posted by on November 30th, 2009 at 3:30 pm, Comments: 0

    If you were stranded on a desert island it would probably suck. However, if there were other desert islands nearby, and if you were somehow [...]

  • Capital Depreciation Fund – Nice Trades!
    Posted by on November 29th, 2009 at 11:24 pm, Comments: 0

    Courtesy of Barrons: “Almost 10 years ago, in January, 2000, America Online CEO Steve Case announced one of the boldest, craziest ideas in modern business [...]

  • The Fed Fights Back
    Posted by on November 29th, 2009 at 1:06 pm, Comments: 0

    Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has an op-ed in the Washington Post today defending the Fed’s handling of the crisis (again) and explaining why he thinks [...]

  • Two Crazy Stories
    Posted by on November 29th, 2009 at 1:12 am, Comments: 0

    Something smells funny to me about the story of the Virginia socialites who “crashed” the White House state dinner on Friday.    Really?  You can be [...]

  • When the Train Leaves the Station, You Have to Be on Board
    Posted by on November 29th, 2009 at 1:01 am, Comments: 0

    I don’t want to forget about this article from Clusterstock last week which quoted Raymond James’ Strategist Jeff Saut.   Over the past several months, Saut [...]

  • Happy Turkey Day
    Posted by on November 26th, 2009 at 1:42 pm, Comments: 0

    As you stuff yourself this Thanksgiving, enjoy these two Saturday Night Live skits – two of my favorites from recent memory.  I don’t know what [...]

  • Ya Think?
    Posted by on November 25th, 2009 at 2:00 am, Comments: 0

    From the FOMC minutes: “Members noted the possibility that some negative side effects might result from the maintenance of very low short-term interest rates for [...]

  • They Said It
    Posted by on November 23rd, 2009 at 1:55 pm, Comments: 0

    From this week’s Barrons, courtesy of my friend, Ted: “On the equity/fixed-income side, the traditional rule of thumb has been for retirement portfolios to have [...]

  • Back to the FHA
    Posted by on November 23rd, 2009 at 1:44 pm, Comments: 0

    Last week I wrote about the absurdity of the F.H.A’s mortgage insurance – requiring only 3.5% down payments and insuring mortgages up to $739k!  CalculatedRisk [...]

  • China Wants Their Money Back
    Posted by on November 23rd, 2009 at 3:34 am, Comments: 0

    Is it funny cause it’s true?  or sad? SnL nails it with this one.  “I like to be kissed when someone is doing sex to [...]

  • The Magic of the F.H.A.
    Posted by on November 20th, 2009 at 2:30 pm, Comments: 0

    Thanks to Calculated Risk for pointing out this remarkable NYT story about FHA insured loans in California.   Now, obviously, we have to be careful drawing [...]

  • Return Free Risk – A Merger Arb Anecdote
    Posted by on November 19th, 2009 at 4:44 pm, Comments: 0

    Most people are familiar with the concept of risk free return.  Today I want to tell my personal anecdote about return free risk and how [...]

  • Misusing Statistics – Distorting Tax Statistics
    Posted by on November 19th, 2009 at 3:12 am, Comments: 0

    Look, I’m a fiscal conservative.  I hate the idea of solving all of our problems by taxing the rich.  I admit that I would normally [...]

  • Quality Readings Link Dump
    Posted by on November 17th, 2009 at 10:51 pm, Comments: 0

    I was honored to be included in the Reformed Broker’s Periodic Table of Finance Bloggers under the category of “rogues gallery.”  Paul Kedrosky’s chart of [...]

  • Nothing to See Here – Everything is Fine.
    Posted by on November 17th, 2009 at 2:33 pm, Comments: 0

    I really thought/hoped that this report was lifted from The Onion: “During the best of the times, Miguel Salcedo’s son, an illegal immigrant in San [...]

  • F U NYT – DYKWTFIA?
    Posted by on November 17th, 2009 at 1:19 pm, Comments: 0

    The NY Times writes an article about bloggers going to the Treasury without nary a mention of Kid Dynamite’s throrough, detailed recaps?  WTF?  DYKWTFIA?   -KD [...]

  • Monday Morning Quarterback
    Posted by on November 16th, 2009 at 6:06 pm, Comments: 0

    Last night’s Patriots-Colts game ended in spectacular fashion, with the majority of the sports world coming down hard on Bill Belichick’s decision to go for [...]

  • Stat of the Day
    Posted by on November 12th, 2009 at 10:48 pm, Comments: 0

    Via CalculatedRisk: “86 percent of homebuyers relying upon FHA mortgage insurance in FY 2009 had downpayments of less than five percent.” Yowza. -KD Share on [...]