college isn't for everyone

NYC seems to be getting more serious about vocational education. I'm all for it as I think the focus on college is unproductive/destructive.

new model?

I wonder if the more gradual declines (relatively speaking) and absence of a capitulation day is due to investors being (somewhat) better educated and, in any event, indoctrinated with the view that a crash is the wrong time to sell?

Holy Mackerel

I think the Fed has just signed on to bail out all large commercial enterprises in the U.S. Because no one is financing, the Fed will now buy commercial paper.

Citi seeks $60b

Based on absolutely nothing as I haven't bothered to read the court filings - doesn't seeking $60b ($20b for compensatory damages) confirm that Citi was getting Wachovia for almost nothing ($2b)? Which is the strongest policy case for finding for Wells Fargo? And thus Citi's request indirectly supports Wells Fargo?

Developed and Emerging Markets Banks Convergence?

I think that the business model of emerging market banks has historically been collecting deposits and investing them in foreign sovereign debt (and not lending to local business except large and/or politically connected enterprises). Are we moving to the same structure in the rest of the world? At the same time the emerging markets are moving towards actual commercial lending? And, if so, does this suggest that investments as substitution for debt will become possible in the U.S.?

Spitzer's Fault?

Only half tongue in cheek, was Eliot Spitzer a proximate cause of the current economic turmoil?

Consider his weakening of the investment banks (leading them to take on riskier strategies to maintain earnings), targeting of AIG (leading to the ouster of its CEO – the one man who could keep Financial Products in line), and failure to limit mortgage lending fraud and abuses (items more appropriately with a state AG’s mandate).

And then the consequences: Lehman’s bankruptcy, Bear’s bailout, Merrill’s merger, AIG’s nationalization, and today’s frozen credit markets.

sleepless success

There seems to be a strong relationship between success and needing little sleep. The second appears to be a necessary, but not sufficient, condition.