“Things will get much worse before they get better. I fear the worst is ahead of us.”

Nouriel Roubini, who at the moment is as close as you can get to being a celebrity economist, today said the following at the Hedge 2008 conference here in London:
“This is the worst financial crisis in the U.S., Europe and now emerging markets that we’ve seen in a long time,” Roubini said. “Things will get [...]

A platter of shit with bits of broken glass in it

David Sedaris writes in this week’s New Yorker about undecided voters in this year’s presidential election:
“I look at these people and can’t quite believe that they exist. Are they professional actors? I wonder. Or are they simply laymen who want a lot of attention? To put them in perspective, I think of being on an [...]

“U.S. pilot was ordered to shoot down UFO”

This comes from Reuters – U.S. pilot was ordered to shoot down UFO. The 9-year old boy in me is freaking out right now.
“The pilot, Milton Torres, now 77 and living in Miami, said it spent periods motionless in the sky before reaching estimated speeds of more than 7,600 mph.
“After the alert, a shadowy figure told [...]

Palin’s $150,000 problem and the lipstick on a pig prophecy

If the difference between a hockey mom and a pitbull is lipstick, whats the difference between a hockey mom and a greedy politician with a $150,000 Fifth Avenue make-over? The conclusion I suspect a lot of beleaguered hockey moms will be forced to admit: probably a lot.
Let’s have another go: you can put lipstick on a [...]

Anatomy of a blowup

I met Nassim Nicholas Taleb a few weeks ago at a friend’s party. Fascinating guy with a variety of interpretations of the credit crisis. His own history as a derivatives trader gives him a special edge as an academic taking potshots at the financial establishment.
His theories of risk-modelling are at the center of his recent best-seller The Black [...]

The Autumn of the I-Banker

Vanessa Grigoriadis writes a good piece on the listless cast-offs of fallen investment banks…
Read it here
http://nymag.com/news/business/51402/

“Throw the Blackberry away and enjoy life.”

The FT published a letter from California hedge-fund manager Andrew Lahde explaining the reasons why he is retiring at 37 years of age. In it he ridicules upper-class Ivey leaguers, the rat race, the broken concept of an American meritocracy, and sings the praises of hemp and marijuana. I sincerely wish this guy happiness til [...]

Sarah Palin’s Hopeless Pandering on Saturday Night Live

SO if by now you are one of the 21 people left on Earth who doesn’t yet know this, Sarah Palin was on SNL last night in two different sketches. For a woman whose key skill seems to be a tenacious ability to lie through her teeth, the whole thing was drastically uninspired.
She appears first in a [...]

I think it’s a sign that you’re in the wrong line of work when you realize that you don’t want your boss’ job.

Latin hides the stupidity of the priest

The title of this post is taken from a Sicilian proverb. I think it partly describes the corporate culture that helped create the current banking catastrophe. I also think that it helps explain a phenomena endemic to a lot of bubbles throughout history: the corresponding madness of crowds, or suspension of common sense, which leads to their creation.
Risk models that didn’t account for crisis conditions [...]