Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

“The messenger wore a skirt,” says Marna Tucker, “Could Alan Greenspan take that?”*

by run75411 Re-posted from New Agenda April 2009, Bill reminds us of some of the history leading up to today: Editor’s note: We are pleased to present this guest post by Bill H, who’s known around the internet as run75441, and who can usually be found writing in his area of expertise: finance. Recently, Stanford Magazine […]

The Meaning of "Monty Python and the Meaning of Life"

Robert Waldmann Barry Ritholtz argues that the problem with mortgages was underwriting standards and not securitization. He appeals to the very great authority of Monty Python. Click the link. Ritholtz seems not to be familiar with this new idea in economic theory called “Nash equilibrium”. Over -rated yes. Totally irrelevant not so much. One can […]

Why didn’t CDO purchasers just pool for themselves ?

Robert Waldmann One brief question about structured finance and a possible answer. Why did investors need financial operators to make pools for them ? Now it is easier to make sense of financial intermediaries which pool than of those which pool and tranche. The obvious explanation is that an investor investing a small amount of […]