Numbers work in Credit Crisis for Kindergartners. . AliceAssetsPhysical marbles: 4Marbles promised from Bob: 0Marbles promised from Sue: 2Total assets: 6 LiabilitiesMarbles owed to Bob: 7Marbles owed to Sue: 18Total liabilities: 25 Equity: -19 ——————————————————————————–BobAssetsPhysical marbles: 6Marbles promised from Alice: 7Marbles promised from Sue: 1Total assets: 14 LiabilitiesMarbles owed to Alice: 0Marbles owed to Sue: […]

Credit Crisis for Kindergarteners at Interfluidity. David Leonhardt notes that it’s pretty hard to explain what’s going on in the financial world these days (ht Felix). Here’s how I’d tell the tale to a child: Alice, Bob, and Sue have ten marbles between them. Whenever one kid wants another kid to take over a chore, […]

“It is long time past that one important piece of fantastical rubbish be finally sent on its way: this is the idea that neo-cons maintain some kind of fastidious ethic and theological democratization when it comes to who they’re willing to work with on killing people.” -rdan, March 20, 2008 The US plays the ‘game […]

Al Qaeda in Iran July 16, 2007 on Michael Totten’s site. “It is long past time that one important piece of fantastical rubbish be finally sent on its way: this is the idea that Islamists maintain some kind of fastidious ethnic and theological separatism when it comes to who they’re willing to work with on […]

The BBC had a note about food prices rising. And given that global wheat prices are so high, it is tempting for farmers to borrow more in their hope that their gamble pays off with a bumper harvest. “It really is back to the bank manager,” says George, explaining how that conversation will now go: […]

Trying to get beyond today’s headlines, and the moves and countermoves in today’s markets, is difficult. However the future beckons, and it’s looking a lot more “deflationary” than “inflationary” which is the exact reason the Fed is throwing around the power of the “lender of last resort.” Don’t want a Depression, do we? The great […]

Reader sammy sends this link from the WSJ editorials page: Thebest thing about Sunday night’s Federal Reserve-inspired sale of Bear Stearns to J.P. Morgan Chase is the price. At $2 a share for a total of $236 million, this was less a “bailout” than a Fed-mediated liquidation sale. Bear wasn’t too big to fail after […]

“We want to support your American peso with our strong Canadian dollar.”-Pink Eyes, lead singer for the punk band Fu***d Up As we all eagerly await the Fed’s decision on what Fed rate to set today, after taking crud as collateral from Bear Stearns on a non-recourse basis, and opening unlimited lending against further crud […]

…the 4 most dangerous words on wall street are “this time it’s different.” If anyone dealing with securitized mortgages believed that because it was real estate, it would never go bad, they should have been fired long ago; after decades in which the norm has been that housing matches inflation, anyone who believed that this […]

The WSJ online reports the following about our discussion of domestic NSA surveillance: Largely missing from the public discussion is the role of the highly secretive NSA in analyzing that data, collected through little-known arrangements that can blur the lines between domestic and foreign intelligence gathering. Supporters say the NSA is serving as a key […]