Interesting story

After a few days away because of illness, I'm back with this interesting story from the NY Times. Interesting because at its core the story is about a simple contract dispute between two prominent financial players. Perhaps more interesting is the wider issue which goes well beyond finance into a test of test of will between the willful. Hmmm. OWS may actually have something.
A test of wills

Groupon

My earlier posts were very skeptical of Groupon.. Yes, Groupon's IPO did get off. But investors may now be taking a more sober look at the company and its business model.
Wouldn't touch this one with a barge pole.
Investors flee Groupon from DealBook

The supercommittee

Anyone else see the irony in the self designated "supercommittee"? (See next post.)

Again Captain Renault  comes to mind when speaking of the U.S. Congress; "I'm shocked, shocked that congress could not pass deficit reduction legislation"

Relatedly, students in my Investment Finance course will hopefully remember the EMH (Efficient Market Hypothesis). Now think about it, the S&P 500 dropped 2% Thursday on the news of the supercommittee's failed debt reduction effort. That would indicate the market anticipated a real outcome from the committee.
Maybe the market isn't so efficient!

More streets to occupy

The Occupy Wall Street folks may have a sound basic concept (growing income inequality)  but the lack of a coherent message makes the movement  look like a scruffy bunch of Howard Beales. Here's an idea; occupy a couple of other pieces of real estate before trying to take on Wall Street.

Step One, Occupy Madison Avenue.
Retain some Don Draper to help focus your message. Just drumming won't get you far. Even someone as off putting as Newt Gingrich has a point about OWS.

Step Two, Occupy Washington.
Once the movement has an actual message, take it to Washington. It should be easy to enlist recruits to rail against an inept Congress With favorable ratings below 10% Washington would seem an easier  target. And Congress is the entity that could actually effect change on Wall Street, at least theoretically.

Tahrir Square is protest. Zuccotti Park is a mess.

A Euro skeptic

Another voice awaiting the Euro's demise is described in a piece from the NY Times:

A Euro doomsayer

Mr. Connolly's main points can be found at 10:00 for about ten minutes. The whole video is much longer
It's All Greek to Me

A post mortem for the Euro

Students may remember that I have been a Euro skeptic, thinking the challenges of a coordinated Europe allowing for a single currency are too great. Paul Krugman, economics professor at Princeton, thinks similarly and has written a pre post mortem for the Euro. Worth reading.

Krugman's Ledgends of the Fail
from the NY Times

Anyone?

No one has responded to the extra credit question found in the Nov. 10 post: Who popularized the expression -" Malefactors of great wealth"?
Anyone?
The winner will be the envy of the blog and earn a great big "Bully".
Extra kudos if you don't Google for the answer.

Taking sides

Students who took Senior Seminar with me remember (hopefully) the segments named "Taking Sides" where a significant, current business or economics issue was debated in class. Today's New York Times contains two articles, apparently written independently, that make an outstanding point/counterpoint of progressive and "conservative" politics. Notable is the context each writer provides.
Columbia University's Jeffrey Sachs' position

George Mason Univ.'s Tyler Cowen's position

Banks promise to never, never, never do it again. Right

If you wonder if Occupy Wall Street protestors have something to protest then you may find this NY Times article interesting. After committing financial crimes such as fraud, malefactors of great wealth on Wall Street normally are required by the SEC to pay a fine and agree to never do it again. The article below describes how well that strategy has been working out.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/11/08/business/in-sec-fraud-cases-banks-make-and-break-promises.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=promises%20made&st=cse

PS: For extra credit, who popularized the term malefactors of great wealth?

The demise of MF Global

The dramatic failure of MF Global reflects not only the fragility of the financial markets but how, again, lessons were not learned from the financial crisis started in 2008. A good review of the former comes from the Financial Times http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/2882d766-06fb-11e1-90de-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1dGXkhSpf
and the latter by the Daily Show http://dealbook.nytimes.com/2011/11/09/the-daily-show-addresses-the-walking-debt/

Oh the irony!