» Posted by Martin Weil on October 23, 2008

Economic theory would hold that this is just rational profit-maximizing behavior since successul football coaches in today's society are probably the largest contributor to a college or university's financial success. So let's not assign the blame to colleges, or those "greedy" coaches.

Image from Economix

» Posted by Martin Weil on October 23, 2008

From CNBC, two S&P officials discuss mortgage backed security ratings:

Official #1: Btw (by the way) that deal is ridiculous.

Official #2: I know right...model def (definitely) does not capture half the risk.

Official #1: We should not be rating it.

Official #2: We rate every deal. It could be structured by cows and we would rate it.

A former executive of Moody's says conflicts of interest got in the way of rating agencies properly valuing mortgage backed securities. Former Managing Director Jerome Fons, who worked at Moody's until August of 2007, says Moody's was focused on "maxmizing revenues," leading it to make the firm more "issuer friendly."

» Posted by Martin Weil on October 12, 2008

Two excellent hour long interviews from Charlie Rose. The first with Warren Buffett; the second with former (and, to my mind, the last great) Federal Reserve Chairman, Paul Volcker, provide a more rational perspective to the mounting panic. Both are highly recommended.

» Posted by Martin Weil on October 09, 2008

People are starting to make nervous jokes about pulling their money out of shaky U.S. banks and stashing it under their mattresses instead.... It is real - so real it risks turning the emerging recession into the biggest economic nightmare since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

``My own view of this tends to be apocalyptic - that we are on the threshold of a '30s-like experience,'' said David Cates, chairman of Ferguson & Co., bank consultants based in Dallas.

From the Seattle Times, December 16, 1990

Pointer Calculated Risk

» Posted by Martin Weil on October 08, 2008

Just in case you were thinking that it's you feeling worse than you've ever felt with respect to the current decline, it's not. It's the market. Year-to-date, this is now the worst decline in U.S. stock market history.

So writes Paul Kedrosky

For the full year, 1932 clocks in at a negative 43% and 1937 at a negative 35%.

» Posted by Martin Weil on October 07, 2008

Wall Street's Shadow Market

» Posted by Martin Weil on October 05, 2008

From The Big Picture

» Posted by Martin Weil on October 01, 2008

From Odd Numbers