Let’s stipulate what “everybody knows”: There are some assets in the capital markets, many of which are mortgage-related, that were seriously overvalued over the past several years. Many of the others are Credit-related (CDS and CDOs and the like). Most of the two asset types listed above are reasonable concepts that, if they are commoditized, […]

Let us assume: That there is an equity premium ([PDF] UPDATE: Link modified to Brad De Long posting in which the PDF is embedded. Hat tip: Don Lloyd in comments.) That the equity premium can be derived from a linear relationship (y = ax(1) + bx(2) + ….) of the most significant variables. That equity […]

Via the sainted and gorgeous Bess Levin at Dealbreaker the erudite Felix Salmon at Portfolio.com, Michael Giberson at Knowledge Problem summarizes why even a Bush Administration initiative that might have had an upside falls victim to Daniel Davies’s Three Laws: In response to disruptions caused by Hurricane Gustav, the DOE has indicated a willingness to […]

Via Drs. DeLong and Black, the WaPo reports that this version of the S&L crisis will repeat the mistakes of the last one: Instead of giving each company a big capital infusion upfront, the government could make quarterly injections as the companies’ losses warrant, the sources said. This would be an attempt to minimize the […]

Steve Waldman graduated Columbia the year after Barack Obama. His brother Mike was Bill Clinton’s chief speechwriter. So when Steve Waldman declared his suspicion that John McCain would get the highest percentage of the Jewish vote of any recent Republican, with a link that indicated it could put Florida solidly in the Republican column, I […]

The Yahoo! headline says most of it: GMAC slashing workforce; reducing mortgage lending. I discussed the GMAC problems at Marginal Utility almost eighteen months ago. Things haven’t gotten much better since then. But some of the Mortgage Industry players have changed partners: Lender GMAC Financial Services said Wednesday it will close all of its 200 […]

Continuing a series from Marginal Utility, link here:

Without further comment, since I’m trying to avoid figuring out how stupid the McCain Machine thinks female voters will be, even as their house organ (CNN) continues to declare that Obama is “not ready.”

…how are people who, eight years ago, were proudly displaying “Sore/Loserman” bumper stickers going to react if/when McCain announces Loserman as his pick for VP?* UPDATE: Otoh, if the NYT and Reuters are correct, any claim that Obama is “too inexperienced to be President” just went out the window. *This is not necessarily going to […]

Since I’m cash-strapped for the next few years, I’m looking for ways (legally, semi-legal, other) to make money. Thank the L-rd for WaMu. Let’s see: HELOC is at Prime – 0.76%, currently 4.24%. So I can: Take $25,000 from HELOC. Invest in FDIC-insured WaMu CD for 12 months at 5.00%. Profit until the fourth 0.25% […]