RSS Feed

Calendar

May 2011
M T W T F S S
« Apr   Jun »
 1
2345678
9101112131415
16171819202122
23242526272829
3031  

Search

Tag Cloud

Archives

Institutional Investor (May Issue)

2011/ 05/ 31 by jd in Global News

Today’s investors are in some ways wiser from the lessons of 2008. “Investors are paying more attention to tail risks; they are more conscious of the need to carefully manage liabilities as well as assets; and they are appropriately more skeptical of reliance on third parties like rating agencies.” In other cases, however, investors have yet to learn the right lessons. Institutional Investor identifies four of these as “relying on stop losses, buying options, stress testing and crowding into certain trades.”

Today’s investors are in some ways wiser from the lessons of 2008. “Investors are paying more attention to tail risks; they are more conscious of the need to carefully manage liabilities as well as assets; and they are appropriately more skeptical of reliance on third parties like rating agencies.” In other cases, however, investors have yet to learn the right lessons. Institutional Investor identifies four of these as “relying on stop losses, buying options, stress testing and crowding into certain trades.”

 

New York Times (May 29)

2011/ 05/ 30 by jd in Global News

NASA has given up the search for Spirit, the Mars Rover whose 3-month mission in 2004 grew into 6 years of plentiful data gathering. “This is not like calling off the search for a missing human explorer. And yet it feels similar, even though Spirit is a six-wheeled robotic vehicle….it is strangely easy to personify Spirit. Over the years, it has seemed intrepid, valiant, determined. It has no consciousness, but there has been something self-knowing in the photographs it has taken of itself, with Mars in the background.”

 

Bloomberg (May 26)

2011/ 05/ 29 by jd in Global News

Solar is sliding down the cost curve even as cell efficiency climbs. Solar may soon beat the electricity rates set by utilities. “The cost of solar cells, the main component in standard panels, has fallen 21 percent so far this year, and the cost of solar power is now about the same as the rate utilities charge for conventional power in the sunniest parts of California, Italy and Turkey.”

 

The Economist (May 26)

2011/ 05/ 28 by jd in Global News

Christine Lagarde is talented, but she should not be chosen to head the International Monetary Fund. “The stitch-up, whereby the head of the IMF is a European and the head of the World Bank is an American, is a disgrace. International posts should be filled according to merit…. Europe’s monopoly of the IMF’s leadership has long been an anomaly. It is time that it ended.”

 

Time (May 26)

2011/ 05/ 27 by jd in Global News

Most of us are irrationally optimistic. “Neuroscience and social science suggest that we are more optimistic than realistic,” which is both good and bad. “Overly positive assumptions can lead to disastrous miscalculations….But the bias also protects and inspires us: it keeps us moving forward…. Without optimism, our ancestors might never have ventured far from their tribes and we might all be cave dwellers, still huddled together and dreaming of light and heat.”

 

Financial Times (May 24)

2011/ 05/ 27 by jd in Global News

Barack Obama’s visit to the UK has called attention to the long standing alliance between the two countries. While some say this relationship has been weakening, “the two countries’ interests are aligned on the most pressing questions.” These priorities include resolving conflict in Afghanistan, reaching a solution in Libya, and moving Israel and Palestine towards peace.

 

The Telegraph (May 22)

2011/ 05/ 26 by jd in Global News

Half the world thinks Greece should restructure its debt. The other half doesn’t. Prime Minister George Papandreou has come down firmly against any debt restructuring, but Greek citizens may think otherwise. Continued belt tightening could risk “further civil unrest. A poll published on Sunday showed 80pc of Greeks would refuse to make any further sacrifices to ensure continued EU and IMF support for the bail-out.”

 

Los Angeles Times (May 22)

2011/ 05/ 25 by jd in Global News

Breathe a sigh of relief. The world is still here. In the most hyped apocalypse of the 21st century, the 89-year-old Oakland preacher Harold Camping sparked a $100 million marketing campaign proclaiming May 21 as Judgment Day. “God’s wrath was supposed to begin in New Zealand and then race across the globe, leaving millions of bodies wherever the clock struck 6 p.m.” Instead of earthquakes and disaster sweeping across the globe, nothing happened. “The apocalypse failed to materialize.” A relief for most, the non-apocalypse may prove a nightmare to Camping’s followers who walked away from possessions, quit jobs or maxed out credit cards to proclaim the end of the world.Breathe a sigh of relief. The world is still here. In the most hyped apocalypse of the 21st century, the 89-year-old Oakland preacher Harold Camping sparked a $100 million marketing campaign proclaiming May 21 as Judgment Day. “God’s wrath was supposed to begin in New Zealand and then race across the globe, leaving millions of bodies wherever the clock struck 6 p.m.” Instead of earthquakes and disaster sweeping across the globe, nothing happened. “The apocalypse failed to materialize.” A relief for most, the non-apocalypse may prove a nightmare to Camping’s followers who walked away from possessions, quit jobs or maxed out credit cards to proclaim the end of the world.

 

Wall Street Journal (May 20)

2011/ 05/ 23 by jd in Global News

Japan is back in recession and the problem is bigger than the quake. “The earthquake wrought considerable damage, but Japan was ailing months earlier.” GDP data for the last quarter of 2010 was revised downward from a slight contraction of 0.3% to a pronounced contraction of 0.8%. Politicians should be especially wary of measures, such as hiking the consumption tax, which might further dampen consumer spending. “Japan doesn’t have to suffer another lost decade. But it will unless the effort to rebuild earthquake- and tsunami-ravaged areas is accompanied by an effort to rebuild broken confidence.”

 

New York Times (May 20)

2011/ 05/ 22 by jd in Global News

By a long-running understanding, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has been headed by a European and the World Bank by an American. “That tradition…may have fairly reflected the economic geography of 1946. But it does not reflect today’s world, and powerful new players like China, India and Brazil rightly resent it.” In fact, the IMF has been led by French managing directors for 36 of its 65 years, with the remainder filled by other Europeans. The departure of Dominique Strauss-Kahn provides a chance to end the clubby understanding. Going forward, the posts should be filled “on merit alone.”

 

« Older Entries

[archive]