Trade warrior turned globalizationeer Clyde Prestowitz was just in my office this morning, telling about his travels. He had a nice story about being in Doha over the weekend, reading the Gulf Times, and finding that almost every story had something to do with the decline of the dollar. It was only later that he informed me that he’s …
I’m afraid that I’ve let distractions like Emperor’s Club Client 9 and the Fed’s new Term Securities Lending Facility keep me from writing until now about the Most Important Story in the Whole World–journalist Sarah Lacy‘s troubled Q&A with Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg at the SXSW Interactive Conference Sunday.
It started with a bunch of …
When the Federal Reserve announces that it’s going to lower interest rates, most of of us think we have some idea of what that means. When it announces, as it did this morning, a $200 billion “expansion of its securities lending program,” the meaning is a lot muddier–although Wall Street certainly took it as a big positive.
In both …
Here’s a fascinating little development. From Michael Arrington at TechCrunch:
Up to 20% of venture backed startups may have been convinced by their financial advisors to put much of their spare cash into something called Auction Rate Securities, on the promise of money market-like liquidity with better returns. Now, that money is
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From the front page of today’s WSJ:
A rising tide of inflation pressure around the globe is putting more stress on the beleaguered U.S. dollar, as central banks from China to Chile fight rising prices by letting their currencies strengthen.
China’s yuan has already appreciated nearly 3% against the dollar this year, putting it on pace
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Actually, that somewhere is probably in or around Grubman’s Upper East Side town house, a few blocks away from the apartment where Eliot Spitzer spent the morning explaining to his advisers exactly what kind of trouble he’s in. But wow, what a story! I don’t think I’ve ever seen a politician travel from Shining Ethical Beacon to pile o’ …
Reader (and tennis buddy of my Dad) Jim Haynes writes:
I think the Fed has effectively abandoned its traditional aversion to inflation, and might even welcome a modest increase in its rate. This is why:
1. Although Alan Greenspan in his autobiography would have us believe that he didn’t make any important mistakes while Chairman of the
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In the past, when I’ve see an old industrial building standing unused in some place like Richmond, Calif., or Bridgeport, Conn., I always figured it was just basic economic forces keeping it empty. Nobody could find a valuable enough use for the property to justify the cost of fixing it up or tearing it down and replacing it. Plus the …
I’m feeling a little better today. Not well enough to do much actual work, but well enough to look through my e-mail inbox and find stuff like this:
Leadership IQ conducts an annual survey of workplace slacking, and 6,447 workers completed both the February 2007 and February 2008 surveys. In February 2007 these workers reported wasting
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One of the greatest moments of Michael Jordan’s career was the flu game, game 5 of the 1997 NBA Finals against Utah. Jordan had been throwing up all day, and could barely get out of bed. But he somehow willed himself to score 38 points and beat the Jazz. (You can watch the highlights on YouTube.)
Anyway, I’m no Michael Jordan. I’ve got …
Here are the operating margins (operating profits divided by revenue) of Moody’s Corp. Inc. over the past five years:
2007 50%
2006 62%
2005 54%
2004 55%
2003 53%
Anybody know of any other business with margins like that? I checked a couple of what I thought were likely suspects, Google and Qualcomm, and they were nowhere near.
In the most conclusive sign yet that the apocalypse is upon us, the lead story in today’s New York Times is about municipal bond ratings. Apparently a few state treasurers are getting mad about the fact that their bonds are graded differently than corporate bonds–Moody’s, for example, gives five different grades for munis that all would …
