Archive for September, 2008

I made a few claims, it’s fair to see how I’m doing: 1) - This is not a market collapse, in the sense of a price drop in the stock market. It is an institutional collapse because of a price drop. In other words, as long as housing prices, avarice, and economic growth propped up the...
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That’s about it. It’s never going make justice and equality, nor will it necessarily avert financial melt-down. But without it, there’s a real chance that there will be spill-over to the real economy. In April, I wrote about a system collapse, and while I still don’t think it would be Armageddon, I do think...
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I passed this along to a colleague, but I wanted to put it in one place. When I want to read about what’s what in econ&finance (as opposed to orgs, culture, and sociology), I tend to go to these places: Infectious Greed is Paul Kedrosky’s blog on tech+finance, and good about directing stuff. Dani Rodrik, who...
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Well, he is the chief conductor and artistic director of the orchestra of the National Theater in Brazilia, Brazil. He can also whack the hell out of a piano.
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At the onset and height of financial crisis, Damien Hirst has done something interesting. There is a series of Times articles (thanks Carol Vogel for doing the heavy lifting) about the anticipation towards, and outcomes from, Hirst’s “Beautiful Inside My Head Forever” sale at Sotheby’s London. The sale was significant for a few reasons. First,...
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I feel like I should just continue to channel Paul Kedrosky: I pity taxpayers wandering into the credit crisis story at this point. It is absurdly complex, and centers on a subject that most people neither care about nor understand. And the last time they looked in they were told this was about subprime and...
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From D-squared’s one-minute MBA, useful for “avoiding projects pursued by morons”, still a classic and worth heeding today: 1) Good ideas do not need lots of lies told about them in order to gain public acceptance. 2) Fibbers’ forecasts are worthless. 3) The Vital Importance of Audit. If the bailout doesn’t meet these criteria, expect someone (like Daniel...
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I suppose a long post that explains WTF is warranted (I’d point to Daniel’s post as a good one), but in the meantime, two other things are buzzing more to the front of my mind. The first is the batshit crazy assessment by Henry Paulson in his testimony today that: We must now take further,...
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What a surprise that the initial market direction is up (I’ll wait and see if it lasts). The fed suspends short-selling and infuses banks with money! It is not unprecedented, I think, in that the federal government has rationed food, suspended futures markets on all kinds of agricultural commodities, and otherwise intervened pretty directly in...
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If you don’t read Infectious Greed, well, you ought to. I agree with him here: Second, this has nothing to do with naked short-selling. Repeat after me: The trouble is not with short-sellers. The trouble is not with short-sellers. The trouble is with an over-levered financial system built on a house of cards comprised of...
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*update: I did not mean to include JPMorgan in my list of independent broker-dealers. They are already JPMorgan Chase. With the imminent demise of Lehman and the purchase of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America this weekend, you might be asking yourself, “What in the world?” Well, let’s say a few things first about...
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Jennifer Lena and I have a new video up, a continuation of our conversation about the relationship between cultural value and monetary value. We’re talking about devaluation, specifically burned art – in the high art and pop art worlds. And we’re circling around a discussion of spheres/circuits/arenas of value. Burned Art and Murakami from Peter...
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Remember the KLF? Sure you do. British? 80s-90s? Hrm. Well, they created a foundation for promotion of avant garde arts, and as part of this they burned a million quid of their own money. Here is the documentary, in 6 parts. The burning is in part 2: part 1 part 2 part 3 part 4 part 5 part 6 By most...
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Another story today about the relationship between technology and human discretion. Apparently, Google picked up an old story that was undated on the internet (really from 2002), and re-posted it as a story from today: that United Airlines was headed for immanent bankruptcy. Wanna see what happens when people suddenly think that you are...
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In markets 2.0, I refer to the data that is generated as part of normal market transactions. The 2.0 references web 2.0, where the ’social data’ generated by web interactions and transactions has...
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A student today asked me if I knew Brayden King. Another asked me if I knew Shamus Khan. For the most part, I would say, if the person is in economic sociology or organizations, possibly culture or gender as well, I probably have met them at some conference, know them personally, or at least...
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When the bidding for the $10 reached $20, I got a little edgy. When it reached $40, I stopped the auction. Today is the first day of class, and in recent iterations, I have done an exercise where I auction off a real $10 bill. The auction has a lore at Kellogg, and it...
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