Finance Geek

Get ready for a bunch of demand-side economists to tell you that the post-Hurricane Irene rebuilding phase is actually a good thing for future economic growth. But don’t believe it.
Who has it right?
Joshua Shapiro, chief U.S. economist at MFR, Inc., delivered my favorite quote on the subject to the New York Times: “If you’re in the middle of recession, you just wander around blowing up buildings, and that would be your path to prosperity. And clearly that’s not the case. It’s not the case with a natural disaster either.”
Echoing this thought, Ian Shepherdson,…

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Bernie Madoff was sentenced to 150 years for running the biggest Ponzi scheme in modern history but the odyssey continues for whistleblower Harry Markopolos. Despite the accolades and newfound fame, Markopolos doesn’t consider himself a great success. “The financial collapse of 2008 stopped Madoff,” he says. “Nothing we did stopped him. For that I feel [...]

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It is not a moment too soon for the IMF to start planning how to respond to a spate of Euro-zone sovereign debt defaults, and the possible Euro exit of a few countries within the next year or so. For the worst outcome both for the European peripheral countries and for the global economy would be if disorderly defaults and Euro exits were to result in a collapse in the peripheral economies, and in their subsequent move toward hyperinflation. The IMF is the one organization that still has the capability to prevent that outcome.
By now the IMF must recognize that its strategy for the…

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“Most of the economic policies that support robust economic growth in the long run are outside the province of the central bank.” The latter is a rare bit of logic which emanated from Ben Bernanke last Friday, our failed Fed Chairman who’s deftly mastered the art of walking, talking about economics, and being wrong at the same time.
The shame here is that Bernanke didn’t reveal the same kind of modesty during his confirmation hearings back in 2006, not to mention in 2008. Nearly three years ago Bernanke, brain bursting with false “insights” about what caused the…

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Minas Polychronakis has been repairing the soles and shining the shoes of New Yorkers since 1970 at Minas Shoe Repair. Today he has one big dream, and it is to be back in business at the former location of the twin towers, in the yet-to-be-completed 1 World Trade Center. Minas Shoe Repair was one of [...]

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President Obama has nominated Princeton University professor Alan Krueger as the new chairman of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. The hope is Krueger, who previously served in the Obama administration as a Treasury official, can help with the President’s forthcoming jobs plan, scheduled to be unveiled in a speech on September 8. Krueger [...]

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Last spring, when most economists were talking about a second-half recovery, Economic Cycle Research Institute co-founder Lakshman Achuthan came on The Daily Ticker and declared a global summer slowdown was coming. Now that Wall Street consensus has turned extremely bearish on the economy, we figured it was time to check back with Achuthan to get [...]

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When money transformsfrom a strong steady claimon hard assets assured,or at least on real goodsbuilt but not yet consumed, and instead vests its worthon manipulative schemesof corruptible menarmed with fatal conceit,is it such a surprisethat our commerce contractsand employment recedes?
When a free market’s strengthsto correct its mistakesare totally swampedby printing press scriprushing just the wrong way, freezing bad debts in placeto reward wicked knavesthat preyed on damn fools, what makes it so hard to comprehend whyeconomic rebirthcannot swiftly take wing?
When companies sell what…

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While the debt-ceiling debacle has rightfully underscored the crushing liabilities of Medicare and Social Security, it has failed to draw attention to another financial time-bomb: our equally defunct “private” pension system.
Defined benefit plans and the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) have produced an unsustainable pension system which burdens corporations, the economy, and eventually the taxpayer. While the nuances of ERISA law are difficult to comprehend, what is not difficult to recognize is the dire need for pension reform.
The Employee Retirement Income…

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Stocks soared this morning after Ben Bernanke’s Jackson Hole speech this morning. Bernanke did exactly the right thing by not promising more stimulus, says our guest David Kotok, chief investment strategist at Cumberland Advisors. It’s time the government began to wean Wall Street off perpetual market stimulus. And if some traders are disappointed by that, [...]

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Like Sammy Hagar in his Van Halen days, Ben Bernanke has the tools to satisfy Wall Street, but decided to walk away — at least for the moment, leaving those hoping for QE3 in despair. C’mon baby, finish what you started. At Friday’s much-anticipated Jackson Hole speech, Bernanke offered no new Fed policies to address [...]

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Bank of America stock jumped over 9% Thursday on news that Warren Buffett is making a $5 billion investment in the bank. But, at $7.65, the stock closed more than a $1 below its high of the session and BofA shares were falling anew Friday morning, trading as low as $7.45 before stabilizing. When the [...]

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When Standard & Poor’s downgraded the U.S. credit rating earlier this month pundits and politicians claimed this would cause interest rates to spike and kill what little lending there was in the economy. However, the opposite has happened. Interest rates on Treasury bonds have actually fallen and T-bills continue to lead the flight to safety [...]

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Well, somebody beat me to it. Shortly after the East Coast earthquake, someone with a Google+ account—this is Google’s answer to Facebook and Twitter—posted the following note under the username “Paul Krugman”: “People on Twitter might be joking, but in all seriousness, we would see a bigger boost in spending and hence economic growth if the earthquake had done more damage.”
It turns out that this wasn’t the real Paul Krugman, but a fellow named Carlos Graterol, who explained that he did it as parody, to draw attention to the…

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Steve Job’s tenure at Apple has been little short of amazing.  We are all familiar with the run of fantastic products they have released from the iPod through to the iPad (and the as usual the world is desperate for the new iPhone to arrive as soon as possible), but the progression of the business is perhaps the most amazing thing of all.  A lot has been said about Job’s recent resignation as CEO of Apple and until I saw the chart below on Business Insider I wasn’t going to add to it, but 115x value progression in 17 years to briefly become the worlds largest company by market capitalisation is an achievement of breath taking proportions, and I want to call that out.

Regular readers will know that I’m more of an Android than an Apple fan and Job’s resignation doesn’t change that, but I am full of admiration for what he has achieved.

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