The Mafia is now the number one bank in Italy, by one estimate — Reuters
A common misconception about what Reinhart and Rogoff mean for the US economy — BI
The “Iowa effect” and the county at the center of America’s farm boom — Reuters
The unsustainable history of US healthcare costs in 7 charts — Washington Post Wonkblog (duh)
The 36-year-old head of the best-performing hedge fund is posher than you — Bloomberg
And former MF Global employees had a Jon Corzine pinata party. Good for them — FINS
The Greek economy is so bad that thousands of Greeks are taking up farming — NYT
Shocker: doubts grow about the Greek debt restructuring — Spiegel
While Romney was in charge of Bain, 22% of investments failed within 8 years — WSJ
Government jobs have declined further under Obama than any other President — NYT Economix
About 400 Goldman partners could see their pay cut this year — WSJ
The mathematics of Lego — Wired
And nearly 10% of the companies at CES have “Shenzhen” in their names — NYT Gadgetwise
Not sure what the WSJ article is trying to say or what you are trying to infer. That only 80% of the companies Bain invested in didn’t fail? That it would have made more money if it hadn’t invested in investments that lost money? That some companies that Bain invested in eventually failed, sometimes long after Bain was involved?
The phraseology suggests some sort of scandal. Care to expand on what that might be?
There’s very little good news forecast for the European economy — WSJ (paywall)
Just 3% of the 1.4 million net jobs added in the recovery went to women — NWLC
You know who the job recovery is bad news for? Mittens Romney — New Yorker
Why does the government consistently underestimate job creation? — Reuters
US manufacturing workers earn less than half as much as Canadians — WSJ (paywall)
The untold story of GE’s subprime debacle — I Watch News
Goolsbee: Washington isn’t spending too much now, but it will be later — WSJ (paywall)
And the political economy of wolf migration — Lawyers, Guns and Money
CDN, I’ve been able to get full access to paywalled articles occasionally. Perhaps a limit of one per day? Worth exploring.
Hot Wall Street analysts are once again bringing in IPO clients for banks — WSJ (paywall)
A great 2010 profile of Richard Cordray, the new consumer watchdog — NYT
One-third of first-time home buyers get help from their parents — Reuters
Apartment vacancies are at their lowest rate since 2001 — WSJ (paywall)
And here is a list of many terrible things Rick Santorum has said — TNR
Felix, I notice that you’re no longer a slice of lime in my soda, and your page template has gone corporate.
Bill Gross thinks we’re beyond the new normal and into the “paranormal” — Pimco
“Exactly how does one forecast improved trading results?” — Ritholtz
Hallo! Quantitative easing does not create inflation — Business Insider
Yield-hungry investors are gobbling up “bond exotica” — Bloomberg
Americans make up (after taxes) half the global 1% — CNN Money
Obama will probably make recess appointments to the NLRB as well — Washington Post
Here’s a cool little story of American entrepreneurial ingenuity — NPR Planet Money
I’m a fan, but is Google Chrome worth over $1 billion? — The Street
And how Twitter accidentally verified the fake Wendi Deng account — AllThingsD
Find more links on our website and at our foreign friends’.
“The takeaway is you better have your own approach for investing and trading, rather than relying on 3rd party guesses . . .”
Either that or trade opposite whatever they recommend, figuring they know nothing yet their hot air powers blips in the market.
Hi guys, it’s great to be back! I missed you. Apologies for the extremely late post: I’ve been blogging the Iowa Caucus, which was just like Florida in 2000 but ultimately meaningless. Onto the links!
Greece is threatening to leave the euro zone if the latest bailout isn’t approved — BBC
World’s largest hedge fund predicts a decade of “zombie” growth — WSJ
Minutes of the FOMC — Federal Reserve
We’re living in the age of the financial pawnbroker — FT Alphaville
Possibly small sample-size American migration data, visualized — Atlas Van Lines
The ethanol tax credit has ended, perhaps angering the Iowa corn gods — NYT
Inside the budding Youtube viral video studio system — Wired
2% of Americans think Mitt Romney’s first name is Mittens, 2% think it’s Gromit — VF
And some further reading from our salmon-tinged counterparties — FT Alphaville
Happy New Year to you, Mr. Rizzo. And that Mitt Romney name link really is quite stupendously wonderful.
S&P on Europe: still pretty much hopeless — Reformed Broker
Bernanke sees his shadow, may keep cheap money around for two more years — WSJ (paywall)
Meanwhile, Bloomberg releases all his 2007-2009 emergency lending data — Bloomberg
Low holiday prices should terrify retailers about the future — NYT
AIG’s CEO would like to hang around a while longer — WSJ (paywall)
FT Alphaville’s New York team present their awards video — FT Alphaville
What it was like to run a bar in Baghdad during the Iraq war — The Atlantic
Buzzfeed’s 50 funniest headlines from 2011 (two strange ones to follow) — Buzzfeed
Handsome accordian maker is North Korea’s kingmaker — Reuters
‘Gay Robot’ Heckles Bachmann At Iowa Event (VIDEO) — TPM
More links at Counterparties.com and across the pond. I’ll be off next week, so your Counterparties posts will be by OG Felix Salmon himself. Thanks so much for reading, enjoy your holidays, and I’ll see you in the New Year!
> Somehow the phrase “everybody comes to Rick’s” is running through my mind.
My first thought was ‘Club Scud’.
Europe hasn’t learned the lessons of Argentina’s financial crisis, say Argentinians — Spiegel
“China hedge fund bears look good in shorts” — Reuters
Ron Paul’s investments are a “half-step away from a cellar-full of canned goods” and ammo — WSJ Total Return
Actually, 18 years ago, Ron Paul wrote a letter warning of a “coming race war” — Reuters
Katya Wachtel learns Paulson’s Advantage Plus fund’s off more than 50% on the year — Reuters
Fred Wilson: The market for web company IPOs is healthy and rational — A VC
Brookings’s favorite economic stories of the year — Brookings
Many more great links at Counterparties.com, as well as further reading at our salmon-colored friend’s.
Wonder if Abacus case would have been quite as compelling if ACA and ABN had known a hedge fund manager that lost 52% of its capital in one year was the other side of the bet vs one that – after the trade was made – got immortalised in a book.
El-Erian: There’s more than a 1 in 3 chance the EU will implode — Bloomberg
Europeans are basically fleeing the continent in droves — Guardian
The world suddenly has a shortage of “risk-free” assets — WSJ (paywall)
Economists and politicians explain 2011 with (their favorite!) charts — Washington Post
BofA settles the Countrywide discrimination case for $335 million — Reuters
Dear Jamie Dimon… “we don’t hate the rich. What we hate are the predators.” — Reformed Broker
In addition to our site Counterparties.com, you can find even more links at our counterparties across the pond.
European might flee the continent in droves, but the Guardian has trouble reading data: the World Bank tables are a tally of the stock of migrants at the end of 2010, not the flow during the year 2010. So 11% of the Greek population lives abroad, they didn’t all move there in one year.
EU governments are propping up their banks in unusual ways — WSJ (paywall)
Why China is the “Michael Jackson” economy — Streetwise Professor
Companies are manufacturing in Puerto Rico, while off-shoring their taxes — Bloomberg
No-brainer issue of the year: let high-skill immigrants stay — The Atlantic
After all, immigrants founded almost half of the top US startup companies — Reuters
But that doesn’t mean we’re in favor of this development cash for visas scheme — NYT
Hedge funds can — legally! — pay for tips on laws before they’re passed — WSJ (paywall)
Mets and poker enthusiast David Einhorn explains why he’s short Green Mountain — Reuters
The new migrant workers: seasonal Amazon employees living in RVs — WSJ (paywall)
And VCs earned an average of 1.3% for their investors over the last decade — Entrepreneur
KenG_CA, you obviously have not been paying attention to what is happening to China’s trade flows – they have been NEGATIVE for at least the last two months, they were also negative in Feb but that is probably because of chinese new year.
You also apparently have not been paying attention to how they are financing themselves, ie securing a large portion of the debt in USD – the Dim Sum market being rather tiny at the mo. Nor, apparently, are you aware of the huge stresses they are having in non-performing loans. This year China spent 10% of its GDP bailing out local governments and those governments after that bailout are STILL insolvent. This was a hard cash, money down the drain bailout, not the fake outrage “1.2trillion wholely collateralised loans to banks which they immediately paid back with interest” bailout that the US but the real McCoy.
As for “influence”, sure. So do unions. In China, big business don’t have “influence”, there ARE the goverment. The government in China is effectively a few families running the country for their own enrichment. Anyone paying the slightest attention to the news will know about a protest going on in Wukan, where the former mayor – and whose daughter is now the 11th richest person in China – is head of the property development company that buys land from the local government and magically seems to always immediately flip it for a 70% profit. Despite all evidence to the contrary, I find it hard to believe that anyone is dumb enough not to see the huge difference.
To survive, Italy must drastically reduce wages — VoxEU
Warren Buffett’s already down $1.5 billion on his BofA investment — WSJ Deal Journal
Romer on on Reinhart and Rogoff: not all recessions are created equal — NYT
The WSJ says there’s a dividend bubble — WSJ (paywall)
Romney is fully expecting to discuss “that picture” in the general election — Bloomberg
Romney still collections millions from Bain — NYT
And here’s an interesting look at how North Korea makes money: drugs, counterfeiting, and smuggling — NPR
The market seems to think there is, or reasonable enough to trade into the $5′s again.
I think muddling through is the existence for BoA in the near future. Can’t be an exciting time to be there, either.
“‘Comprehensive solution’ to the eurozone crisis is technically and politically beyond reach” — Fitch
Europe today is a bit like the America of 221 years ago — The Economist
Here are some charts arguing the stock market is going to rally — Narrow Tranche
The CEO of LLoyds apparently no longer has insomnia — WSJ (paywall)
While Allen Stanford is allegedly faking amnesia — Bloomberg
Credit Suisse’s new method for catching rogue traders: require vacations — Marketplace
The SEC has charged the guy who inspired “Rudy” with a pump-and-dump scheme — SEC
And Britons are drunk in 76% of the photos tagged of them on Facebook — Telegraph
“Two weeks is a standard that brings Credit Suisse into line with its rivals, including Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley and Barclays Capital. The U.K.’s Financial Services Authority recommended the two-week block leave several years ago”
and it has been standard practice on Wall Street for many years
congratulations to Credit Suisse and Felix for noticing
Nouriel Roubini is (surprise!) not optimistic about the economy next year — Project Syndicate
The obscure program by which Germany lent the ECB half a trillion euro — BusinessWeek
MF Global reportedly stripped “critical powers” from its chief risk officer — Dealbook
The accounting clue that revealed just how bad things were at MF Global — Bloomberg
Morgan Stanley to cut 1600 jobs — Reuters
We’ve heard this before, but Congress might be close to a spending deal — Politico
CDN_Rebel, I rarely agree with Dan Hess, but you have overreacted. Please take a walk around the block and calm down.
A new way the Euro crisis could become an American one — Business Insider
The EU reaches agreement… that prunes are not laxatives — Telegraph
James Murdoch’s entire defense is now he “did not read the full e-mail chain.” — NYT
Inside the Chinese village in open revolt against the government — Telegraph
One of Jon Corzine’s regulators throws him completely under the bus — Dealbook
I’m sure US CEOs completely deserved their 36.47% raises last year — Guardian
Surveymonkey, of all things, is now valued at a billion dollars — Fortune
And here are great photos of Las Vegas’s absurd real estate landscapes — Atlantic Cities
Turns out Italians work more hours than Germans, the Japanese, or Americans — Ritholtz
My, isn’t that a scary UK pension shortfall? — FT Alphaville
Steve Cohen thinks insider trading rules are “vague” — Reuters
He also hates the word “edge”; and please don’t call him “Stevey” — Reuters
.01% of the US gives 24.3% of all federal campaign spending — Sunlight Foundation
The best (and worst) hedge funds of 2011 — Fortune
Economists’ favorite charts of 2011 — BBC
The personal finance guru who thinks humans are inherently weak — Fortune
Here’s a good explainer of what the Higgs Boson, er, would be — Exploratorium
Champagne sales are up 15%, nearly to peak levels — WSJ (paywall?)
And Gawker and Business Insider are now also being sued by The New Yorker’s alleged art forger — Courthouse News Service
Isaac: Your faith is touching, but actual history shows that the one who raises the most money wins 94% of the time. This is why serious candidates spend so much of their time at fundraisers, and why only candidates polling under 5% waste time with realistic policy proposals.