April 12, 2008 / Leave a comment
Here is a CNBC exclusive interview with Alan Greenspan.
Was the Fed keeping interest rate too low for too long?
Greenspan: “The Fed Reserve lost control of long term interest rate probably around 2002 or 2003…and the global force began to dominate the market…”
April 7, 2008 / Leave a comment
Gao Xiqing, President of China’s Investment Co. (CIC) in an interview yesterday on CBS’ 60 minutes, pledged more transparency. You can view this interview by clicking the image below:
March 31, 2008 / Leave a comment
McKinnon explained on wsj that the negative yields (inflation-adjusted) on Treasurys can not be due to “flight to quality” alone. The falling dollar and foreign central banks’ intervention also played a big role. To prevent appreciation of their own currency, foreign central banks are buying more Treasurys thus reducing supply of Treasurys available for the U.S. financial institutions. Both drive up price on Treasurys.
(click to enlarge, source: wsj)
March 30, 2008 / Leave a comment
According to NY Times, the Bush administration is proposing the broadest overhaul of Wall Street regulation since the Great Depression.
The plan hands vast new authority to the Federal Reserve…The proposals would, for the first time, create a set of federal regulators with authority over all players in the financial system, be they banks, insurance companies or other entities like hedge funds and private equity funds, which now operate virtually without regulation. But that authority would be limited…
March 29, 2008 / Leave a comment
(click to enlarge, author’s own calculation)
Europe is China’s No. 1 trading partner. It seems that they did not get the deal the US is getting. Are we going to see more appreciation pressure of CNY/Euro in the future? Or Europe, a union of rough a dozen countries, is fundamentally weaker than the U.S. when it comes to negotiation power?
March 22, 2008 / 2 Comments on Blackjack and investing
Edward Thorp and Bill Gross
talk about their investing philosophy, and its relationship to blackjack. Mr. Thorp ran two hedge funds, Princeton-Newport Partners and Ridgeline Partners, which went nearly 30 years without a down year, and averaged 19%-20% annual returns.
(source: wsj)
"….(the) basic thrust concerns the idea of gambler's ruin, where you lose everything by over-betting. In the context of blackjack, you can never bet more than 2% of your stake without the possibility of eventually losing your entire pot".
Bill Gross, "Here at Pimco, it doesn't matter how much you have, whether it's $200 or $1 trillion. You'll see it throughout our portfolio. We don't have more than 2% in any one credit. Professional blackjack is being played in this trading room from the standpoint of risk management, and that's a big part of our success."
![[Thorp and Goss]](https://s.wsj.net/public/resources/images/OB-BE500_it_tho_20080321135439.gif)