bombay bombings

slumdog milionaire

paulson, oedipus complex

forget about all the technicalities, the real problem is one of trust, a treasury secretary who sealed the current financial system , a fine deal maker , or rather a bad statesman who managed to grab usd 700 bio from the government to fix the banks balance sheets , destroying before this its rival, lehman. this guy will pass to history as too biased to understand the real mess and facts that himself contributed to create, too proud to admit his own mistakes. the real job is currently done by Bernanke. Paulson knows that his mandate is over and that he has spent one of the most miserable moments of his career . He thought to serve the country out of philanthropy, he discovered that he was the originator of this mess , the largest ever destruction that capitalism has assisted to. it looks like an Oedipus complex, an existential drama unfolding: Paulson has murdered his father and married his mother, and he does not understand the absurd destiny reserved to him . he cannot act . let's be frank, the only person who could steer the nation out of this mess is the one who understood well its implicaitons ask rubini.

hf set up

hedge fund lessons set up

november 08 bookmarks

http://www.nybooks.com/articles/22012
Volume 55, Number 17 • November 6, 2008
• A Fateful Election: What's at Stake by Russell Baker, David Bromwich, Mark Danner, Andrew Delbanco, Joan Didion, Ronald Dworkin, Frances Fitzgerald, Timothy Garton Ash, Paul Krugman, Joseph Lelyveld, Darryl Pinckney, Thomas Powers, Michael Tomasky, and Garry Wills
• The Glories of Yiddish by Harold Bloom
• Green Fantasia by Bill McKibben
• Who Killed Anna Politkovskaya? by Amy Knight
• Georgia: The Ignored History by Robert English
• China's Golden Age by Eliot Weinberger
• How Muslims Made Europe by Kwame Anthony Appiah
• Hugo Chávez Versus Human Rights by Jose Miguel Vivanco and Daniel Wilkinson
• Plus: Mark Ford on Ted Hughes, Robert O. Paxton on birding, James Fenton on Vermeermania, G.W. Bowerstock on Daniel Mendelsohn's essays, Benjamin M. Friedman on the free market, Nathaniel Rich on Otto Preminger, and more.
He Foresaw the End of an Era by John Cassidy

The Egyptian Connection by William Dalrymple

AUDIO
A Fine Mess

http://www.newyorker.com/online/2008/11/10/081110on_audio_lanchester¨

In Pictures: Not So Good With Money
http://www.forbes.com/2008/10/29/Intelligent-investing-timebombs-commercial-paper-panel_slide_7.html?thisSpeed=15000

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/06/business/economy/06norris.html


http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/n/floyd_norris/index.html


The Stimulus Plan We Need Now

http://www.rgemonitor.com/us-monitor/254216/the_stimulus_plan_we_need_now



Weekly Weight Watcher "Global recession and earnings" 31-Oct-2008 Hatheway
Moreover, history suggests that banking sector recapitalisation efforts have not been able to stem falling earnings in the broader economy-earnings typically bottomed 1½ years after the recapitalisation event. This suggests we are closer to the beginning of a broad-based earnings slump than to the end. Too earlyto re-engage We remain cautiously positioned in our recommended asset allocation portfolio. We have a preference for high-grade corporate bonds, US Treasuries, and defensive allocations in global equities. In commodities, we retain our underweight positions in industrial metals and energy.
……..
Moreover, as we also show in this note and a companion Global Economic Comment, episodes of severe bank stress are typically followed by protracted periods of weak growth and falling inflation. Which asset classes do best Even after recent sharp declines in equity prices and lower government bond yields, the evide

Russia, an ivory tower of young narcisist leaders who disregard the world around

Oil & gas—The ruble should become the currency for oil and gas trading

News The ruble should become the main currency for oil and gas contracts,
President Medvedev said yesterday in his address to the Federation Council.
Comment There is little that Russia can do unilaterally to establish ruble
denominated oil trading. Russian oil trades on the basis of dollar denominated
dated Brent prices. If Russian oil companies ask their off-takers to pay in rubles,
the impact would be limited to their counterparts at the MICEX’s ruble
exchange operations. The real impact might have place if Russia attempts to
establish independent exchange trading of ruble contracts for its Ural blend.
While this development is possible in theory, technically, it would take a long
time to establish a reliable ruble-denominated trading benchmark. In the case of
gas, the situation is even more complicated, as Gazprom would apparently have
to renegotiate all of its long-term contracts, which would not be an easy task in
an environment of mounting pressure to substitute long-term contracts for spot
trading.

the story of the credit bubble at the beginning of the 21st c

http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2008/11/10/081110crat_atlarge_lanchester?currentPage=3

electoral map 2008

http://elections.nytimes.com/2008/results/president/map.html

thucydides, great political leaders

http://classics.mit.edu/Thucydides/pelopwar.html

on pericles

obama hip hop

the incredible story of the ubs lost shares

from fuw
UBS-Paket bleibt verschollen

Luqman Arnold im Abseits

Nächste Woche wird die UBS die Einladungen zur Generalversammlung verschicken - es ist die vierte in diesem Jahr; sie findet am 27. November in Luzern statt. Einer, der sich nicht für die Traktandenliste interessiert, ist Luqman Arnold. Obwohl seine Beteiligungsgesellschaft Olivant dieses Jahr 2,78% der UBS-Aktien kaufte, wird Olivant damit nicht abstimmen können.

Die Aktien im Marktwert von rund 1,4 Mrd. Fr. sind verschollen, untergegangen im Strudel der Lehman-Pleite. Dass es Jahre gehen könnte, bis die Aktien mit dem Segen des Konkursverwalters PricewaterhouseCoopers wieder bei Olivant landen, ist noch die optimistische Annahme. Möglicherweise werden sie aber nie mehr auftauchen. Olivant-Sprecher Jürg Wildberger sagt gegenüber der FuW: «Man muss mit allem rechnen.»

Jedenfalls kann Arnold sich nicht mehr als UBS-Aktionär betrachten. Er wird bis auf weiteres zur Schweizer Grossbank schweigen, bestätigt Wildberger. Zwischen April und August dieses Jahres äusserte sich Arnold wiederholt in Briefen an UBS-Vizepräsident Sergio Marchionne und in Mitteilungen ausführlich und gehaltvoll über die Corporate Governance und die Strategie der UBS.

Die Londoner Tochtergesellschaft von Lehman Brothers war Prime Broker von Olivant. Diese hinterlegte dort die UBS-Aktien, um von Lehman Kredit zu erhalten. Die Bank lieh die Papiere an Dritte aus, um ihrerseits Kredit aufzunehmen. Wegen des Konkurses werden die Transaktionen nun einzeln analysiert. Wem die Aktien zugesprochen werden, dürfte sich erst in juristischer Feinarbeit herausstellen. Es kommt auf das Kleingedruckte in den Verträgen an und auf die Kontotypen, auf denen die Aktien lagen. Gemäss Schätzungen sind in Lehmans Europaeinheit wegen der Pleite Vermögenswerte von 40 bis 60 Mrd. $ blockiert.

Ebenfalls nächste Woche wird die UBS über den Geschäftsgang im dritten Quartal berichten. Die Eckwerte sind bekannt. Der Reingewinn von 300 Mio. Fr. kam dank eines Gewinns aus der Neubewertung eigener Verpflichtungen zustande (2,2 Mrd. Fr.) und dank einer Steuergutschrift (912 Mio. Fr.).

Nicht zum Tragen kommen bei der UBS hingegen die gelockerten Bilanzierungsregeln. Die Deutsche Bank schaffte es im dritten Quartal in die Gewinnzone, weil sie Wertpapiere von 25 Mrd. € aus dem Handelsbestand herausnehmen konnte und sie deshalb nicht mehr zum Marktpreis bewerten musste (vgl. Seite 31). Das ersparte ihr 845 Mio. € Wertberichtigungen. Der Fall UBS liegt anders. Die UBS will ihre Risikopositionen weitgehend an die Schweizerische Nationalbank auslagern (verkaufen). Buchhalterisch müssen sie bis dann im Handelsbestand verbleiben, weshalb eine Umklassifizierung nicht möglich ist.

obama final speech

Obama come periple
l giudizio di Tucidide su Pericle [modifica]

Lo storico Tucidide presenta Pericle come un modello di uomo politico equilibrato, che seppe portare Atene al massimojavascript:void(0) splendore ed alla massima potenza. Pericle infatti condusse la città nei periodi di pace con moderazione e la mantenne sicura, facendola diventare grandissima. Quando scoppiò la Guerra ne previde la potenzialità, manifestando una preveggenza che si rivelò solo dopo la sua morte.

Disse infatti che gli ateniesi avrebbero vinto se fossero rimasti tranquilli, si fossero curati della flotta e non avessero cercato di ampliare l'impero nel corso della guerra facendo correre pericoli alla città. Gli Ateniesi fecero l'esatto contrario, imbarcandosi in imprese estranee alla guerra e che, se riuscite, avrebbero portato vantaggi soprattutto a privati cittadini, e il cui fallimento si sarebbe ritorto a danno per l'intera città.

Il giudizio di Tucidide è lucidamente espresso nelle seguenti parole:
« [...] Ne era motivo il fatto che Pericle, potente per dignità e senno, chiaramente incorruttibile al denaro, dominava il popolo senza limitarne la libertà, e non era da lui condotto più di quanto egli stesso non lo conducesse, poiché Pericle non parlava per lusingarlo, come avrebbe fatto se avesse ottenuto il potere con mezzi illeciti, ma lo contraddiceva anche sotto l'influsso dell'ira, avendo ottenuto il potere per suo merito personale. [...]
Vi era così ad Atene una democrazia, ma di fatto un potere affidato al primo cittadino. »


(Tucidide, Storie, II, 65)


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vlM3x-GoCA&eurl=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/04/the-final-rallies-obama-m_n_140800.html

obama tooth

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/11/03/obama-on-grandmother-and_n_140698.html

Calling it a "bittersweet time" in his life, there were moments when one could detect the sadness in his voice and face. The crowd in Charlotte did its best to pull him along, screaming out words of support as he detailed Madelyn Dunham's life and drew from it threads that weaved into his candidacy and message. It was a poignant moment: the woman who helped raise him passing away just hours before the election.

No matter what happens tomorrow, I'm going to feel good about how it has turned out because all of you have created this remarkable campaign. She is gone home. And she died peacefully in her sleep, with my sister at her side. And so, there is great joy as well as tears. I'm not going to talk about it too long because it is hard, a little, to talk about.

I want everybody to know though a little bit about her. Her name was Madelyn Dunham. And she was born in Kansas in a small town in 1922. Which means she lived through the Great Depression, she lived through two world wars, she watched her husband go off to war, while she looked after her baby and worked on a bomber assembly line. When her husband came back they benefited from the GI bill, they moved west and eventually ended up in Hawaii.

She was somebody who was a very humble person, a very plainspoken person. She is one of those quiet heroes we have all across America, who are not famous, their names are not in the newspapers, but each and every day they work hard. They look after their families. They sacrifice for their children, and their grandchildren. They aren't seeking the limelight. All they try to do is do the right thing. And in this crowd, there are a lot of quiet heroes like that, people like that, mothers and fathers and grandparents who have worked hard and sacrificed all their lives and the satisfaction that they get is in seeing their children or maybe their grandchildren or their great-grandchildren live a better life than they did. That is what America is about. That is what we are fighting for.

trading algos with limewire

bloomberg limewire trading algos