12.28.2011
12.15.2011
How You Measured Success In New Orleans
"What was important inside New Orleans was who your mama was, what carnival organisation you belonged to, where you went to school. It wasn't that there was an attitude that was hostile to success; it was that success was family; it was, "Did you give pleasure to people?" It was just kind of being. It wasn't achieving." - in smh.com.au
12.05.2011
Looming Threats
We have identified two looming threats:
The first is the shifting relationship between ambitious young people and money. There’s a reason the Lower 99 currently lack leadership: Anyone with the ability to organize large numbers of unsuccessful people has been diverted into Wall Street jobs, mainly in the analyst programs at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. Those jobs no longer exist, at least not in the quantities sufficient to distract an entire generation from examining the meaning of their lives.
Our Wall Street friends, wounded and weakened, can no longer pick up the tab for sucking the idealism out of America’s youth. But if not them, who? We on the committee are resigned to all elite universities becoming breeding grounds for insurrection, with the possible exception of Princeton.
The second threat is in the unstable mental pictures used by Lower 99ers to understand their economic lives. (We have found that they think in pictures.)
For many years the less viable among us have soothed themselves with metaphors of growth and abundance: rising tides, expanding pies, trickling down. A dollar in our pocket they viewed hopefully, as, perhaps, a few pennies in theirs. They appear to have switched this out of their minds for a new picture, of a life raft with shrinking provisions. A dollar in our pockets they now view as a dollar from theirs. Fearing for their lives, the Lower 99 will surely become ever more desperate and troublesome. Complaints from our membership about their personal behavior are already running at post-French Revolutionary highs.
We on the strategy committee see these developments as inexorable historical forces. The Lower 99 is a ticking bomb that can’t be defused. They may be occasionally distracted by, say, a winning lottery ticket. (And we have sent out the word to the hedge fund community to cease their purchases of such tickets.) They may turn their anger on others -- immigrants for instance, or the federal government -- and we can encourage them to do so. They may even be frightened into momentary submission. (We’re long pepper spray.) - in Bloomberg
The first is the shifting relationship between ambitious young people and money. There’s a reason the Lower 99 currently lack leadership: Anyone with the ability to organize large numbers of unsuccessful people has been diverted into Wall Street jobs, mainly in the analyst programs at Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs. Those jobs no longer exist, at least not in the quantities sufficient to distract an entire generation from examining the meaning of their lives.
Our Wall Street friends, wounded and weakened, can no longer pick up the tab for sucking the idealism out of America’s youth. But if not them, who? We on the committee are resigned to all elite universities becoming breeding grounds for insurrection, with the possible exception of Princeton.
The second threat is in the unstable mental pictures used by Lower 99ers to understand their economic lives. (We have found that they think in pictures.)
For many years the less viable among us have soothed themselves with metaphors of growth and abundance: rising tides, expanding pies, trickling down. A dollar in our pocket they viewed hopefully, as, perhaps, a few pennies in theirs. They appear to have switched this out of their minds for a new picture, of a life raft with shrinking provisions. A dollar in our pockets they now view as a dollar from theirs. Fearing for their lives, the Lower 99 will surely become ever more desperate and troublesome. Complaints from our membership about their personal behavior are already running at post-French Revolutionary highs.
We on the strategy committee see these developments as inexorable historical forces. The Lower 99 is a ticking bomb that can’t be defused. They may be occasionally distracted by, say, a winning lottery ticket. (And we have sent out the word to the hedge fund community to cease their purchases of such tickets.) They may turn their anger on others -- immigrants for instance, or the federal government -- and we can encourage them to do so. They may even be frightened into momentary submission. (We’re long pepper spray.) - in Bloomberg
11.30.2011
Credit Agencies, An Excerpt From The Big Short
To judge from their behavior, all the rating agencies worried about was maximizing the number of deals they rated for Wall Street investment banks, and the fees they collected from them.
Moody’s once a private company, had gone public in 2000. Since then its revenues had boomed, from 800 million dollars in 2001 to 2.01 billion dollars in 2006. Some huge percentage of the increase –more than half, certainly, but exactly how much more than half they declined to tell Eisman –flowed from the arcane end of the home finance sector, known as structured finance.
The surest way to attract structured finance business was to accept the assumptions of the structured finance industry. “We asked everyone the same two questions,” said Vinny. “What is your assumption about home prices, and what is your assumption about loan losses.” Both rating agencies said they expected home prices to rise and loan losses to be around 5 percent – which, if true, meant that even the lowest-rated triple-B, subprime mortgage bonds crafted from them were money -good.” it was like everyone had agreed in advance that five percent was the number,” said Eisman. “They all said five percent. It was a party and there was a party line.” - an excerpt from the “Big Short”
Moody’s once a private company, had gone public in 2000. Since then its revenues had boomed, from 800 million dollars in 2001 to 2.01 billion dollars in 2006. Some huge percentage of the increase –more than half, certainly, but exactly how much more than half they declined to tell Eisman –flowed from the arcane end of the home finance sector, known as structured finance.
The surest way to attract structured finance business was to accept the assumptions of the structured finance industry. “We asked everyone the same two questions,” said Vinny. “What is your assumption about home prices, and what is your assumption about loan losses.” Both rating agencies said they expected home prices to rise and loan losses to be around 5 percent – which, if true, meant that even the lowest-rated triple-B, subprime mortgage bonds crafted from them were money -good.” it was like everyone had agreed in advance that five percent was the number,” said Eisman. “They all said five percent. It was a party and there was a party line.” - an excerpt from the “Big Short”
11.25.2011
"The Valley Girl Show" Interview with Bestselling Writer Michael Lewis
Michael Lewis on the Valley Girl Show.
11.21.2011
CNBC: Bullish On Books
Boomerang is cited on CNBC`s "Best Books For The Holidays 2011":
“Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World”
By Michael Lewis
224 pages
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Co.
List: $25.95
A must read for anyone who wants to know more about what caused the global financial meltdown and how we are all affected by what happens “over there.” Written by the acclaimed author of "Moneyball," "The Big Short," "The Blind Side," and the iconic "Liar's Poker," this book is based on articles Michael Lewis wrote for Vanity Fair covering "financial disaster tourism, traveling to Iceland, Ireland, Greece, and beyond." Brilliantly written, and at times sadly hilarious knowing what we know now about just how little we knew about our money and those people we trusted.
“Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World”
By Michael Lewis
224 pages
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Co.
List: $25.95
11.19.2011
A Reflection On Greece
Even if it is technically possible for these people to repay their debts, live within their means, and return to good standing inside the European Union, do they have the inner resources to do it? Or have they so lost their ability to feel connected to anything outside their small worlds that they would rather just shed their obligations?
On the face of it, defaulting on their debts and walking away would seem a mad act: all Greek banks would instantly go bankrupt, the country would have no ability to pay for the many necessities it imports (oil, for instance), and the government would be punished for many years in the form of much higher interest rates, if and when it was allowed to borrow again.
But the place does not behave as a collective... It behaves as a collection of atomized particles, each of which has grown accustomed to pursuing its own interest at the expense of the common good. There’s no question that the government is resolved to at least try to re-create Greek civic life. The only question is: Can such a thing, once lost, ever be re-created? - in nybooks.com
Related: National Bank Of Greece (NBG)
On the face of it, defaulting on their debts and walking away would seem a mad act: all Greek banks would instantly go bankrupt, the country would have no ability to pay for the many necessities it imports (oil, for instance), and the government would be punished for many years in the form of much higher interest rates, if and when it was allowed to borrow again.
But the place does not behave as a collective... It behaves as a collection of atomized particles, each of which has grown accustomed to pursuing its own interest at the expense of the common good. There’s no question that the government is resolved to at least try to re-create Greek civic life. The only question is: Can such a thing, once lost, ever be re-created? - in nybooks.com
Related: National Bank Of Greece (NBG)
11.18.2011
The Credit Wasn’t Just Money, It Was Temptation
The credit wasn’t just money, it was temptation. It offered entire societies the chance to reveal aspects of their characters they could not normally afford to indulge. Entire countries were told, “The lights are out, you can do whatever you want to do and no one will ever know.” What they wanted to do with money in the dark varied.
Americans wanted to own homes far larger than they could afford, and to allow the strong to exploit the weak. Icelanders wanted to stop fishing and become investment bankers, and to allow their alpha males to reveal a theretofore suppressed megalomania. The Germans wanted to be even more German; the Irish wanted to stop being Irish. All these different societies were touched by the same event, but each responded to it in its own peculiar way. - in www.nybooks.com
Americans wanted to own homes far larger than they could afford, and to allow the strong to exploit the weak. Icelanders wanted to stop fishing and become investment bankers, and to allow their alpha males to reveal a theretofore suppressed megalomania. The Germans wanted to be even more German; the Irish wanted to stop being Irish. All these different societies were touched by the same event, but each responded to it in its own peculiar way. - in www.nybooks.com
11.17.2011
Moneyball Trailer
The story of Oakland A's general manager Billy Beane's successful attempt to put together a baseball club on a budget by employing computer-generated analysis to draft his players. - in IMDB
Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game (ISBN 0-393-05765-8) is a book by Michael Lewis, published in 2003, about the Oakland Athletics baseball team and its general manager Billy Beane. Its focus is the team's modernized, analytical, sabermetric approach to assembling a competitive baseball team, despite Oakland's disadvantaged revenue situation. A film based on the book starring Brad Pitt was released in 2011. - in Wikipedia
11.15.2011
American Journalism Vs. British Journalism
Going from American journalism to British journalism is like going from eating bratwurst to eating Mexican food. - in LA Times
11.14.2011
'Boomerang': Money Thrown Out in Hope, Coming Back in Anger
What caused the economic troubles in Iceland, Greece, Ireland, Germany and elsewhere? Author Michael Lewis has some controversial theories involving sweeping character assessments of each nation. - in PBS News Hour
11.13.2011
Everybody Tells Stories In New Orleans
"I didn't know anybody who knew anybody who'd written a book, with the one exception of Walker Percy, who was this freak who lived across the lake. But everybody tells stories in New Orleans.
A New Orleanian ran Goldman Sachs in the golden age of Goldman Sachs, [Gustave] "Gus" Levy. And I think it's because he really emerged from New Orleans with an advanced degree in spinning... And the financial world is all about that." - in L.A. Times
A New Orleanian ran Goldman Sachs in the golden age of Goldman Sachs, [Gustave] "Gus" Levy. And I think it's because he really emerged from New Orleans with an advanced degree in spinning... And the financial world is all about that." - in L.A. Times
11.12.2011
11.11.2011
Three Lessons That Stuck For Life
"Growing up in New Orleans, writer Michael Lewis learned three lessons that stuck with him for life:
Success and happiness are very different things.
Never become a lawyer.
You don't need to come from a bookish environment to know how to spin a helluva story." - in LA Times
Success and happiness are very different things.
Never become a lawyer.
You don't need to come from a bookish environment to know how to spin a helluva story." - in LA Times
11.08.2011
How Easy Money Turned to Tough Times
Fahreed Zakaria interviews Michael Lewis, author of "Boomerang" & "The Big Short", who says the financial sector "basically abused" society. Too much credit, too much easy money, loaned by banks who were not doing their job of withholding loans to people who were a credit risk, led to the financial collapse.
The future is being undervalued. Americans have forgotten about the long term. There is a cultural problem of wanting public services but not wanting to pay for them. This is shortsighted. A crisis is necessary for change to happen. Lewis believes the end game will play-out at the local level. This could take years.
11.07.2011
If The Law Was Enforced, Every Doctor In Greece Would Be In Jail
"The scale of Greek tax cheating was at least as incredible as its scope: an estimated two-thirds of Greek doctors reported incomes under 12,000 euros a year — which meant, because incomes below that amount weren't taxable, that even plastic surgeons making millions a year paid no tax at all….'If the law was enforced," the tax collector said, "every doctor in Greece would be in jail.'" - in CNBC
11.06.2011
Video Interview: Michael Lewis On Charlie Rose
Michael Lewis, author of 'Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World' in Charlie Rose, Bloomberg TV.
11.05.2011
A Good Quote: Dumb Decisions On Wall Street
“What are the odds that people will make smart decisions about money if they don't need to make smart decisions - if they can get rich making dumb decisions? The incentives on Wall Street were all wrong; they're still all wrong.” ― Michael Lewis, The Big Short: Inside the Doomsday Machine
11.04.2011
European Crisis: I Wouldn't Put My Money On All Of This Working Out Nicely
I doesn't know what is going to happen, but wouldn't put my money on all of this working out nicely. - in Motley Fool UK
11.03.2011
Life Lessons From Baseball
"Moneyball" author Michael Lewis discusses the story and its real-world parallels. - CNN Video
The Irish Have a Greater Talent For Suffering
"The Irish just have a greater talent for suffering. If you imposed on the Greeks what the Irish have imposed on the Irish population, people would be getting shot." - in Irish Times
11.02.2011
The Greek: Of Control Public Sector
In just the past twelve years the wage bill of the Greek public sector has doubled, in real terms — and that number doesn't take into account the bribes collected by public officials. The average government job pays almost three time the average private-sector job. - in Trader Talk Blog
Greece: Who Sank Who?
'In Greece the banks didn't sink the country. The country sank the banks' - in Allen Lane Twitter
11.01.2011
Fishing Is Hard, Investment Banking Is Not
They weren't prepared for this idea that you could make money out of money, without any effort. If you fished, and someone offered you the chance to be an investment banker, you'd take it. Fishing's hard. Investment banking is not. - speaking about Iceland, a tiny country where fishermen were transformed into day traders virtually overnight
10.31.2011
Greek`s Tragedy
In addition to its roughly 400 billion dollars (and growing) of outstanding government debt, the Greek number cruncher had just figured out that their government owed another $800 billion or more in pensions. Add it all up and you got about 1.2 trillion dollars, or more than a 250,000 dollars for every working Greek...And those were just the official numbers; the truth is surely worse. - in CNBC
10.30.2011
Long Term Interests Vs. Short Term Rewards
Everywhere you turn you see Americans sacrifice their long-term interests for short-term reward. - in a recent Vanity Fair article
10.29.2011
Preserving The Status Quo, Preserving The Delusion
All the forces in the state are lined up to preserve the status quo. To preserve the delusion. - in a Vanity Fair article
10.28.2011
Greek Railways: A Peculiar Business Model
The Greek railway makes 100 million euros in revenue and pays out 400 million euros in salaries with an average wage of €65,000 per year. - in BBC Radio
10.27.2011
Greece: Total Moral Collapse
The structure of the Greek economy is collectivist, but the country, in spirit, is the opposite of a collective. Its real structure is every man for himself. Into this system investors had poured hundreds of billions of dollars. And the credit boom had pushed the country over the edge, into total moral collapse. - in Boomerang
10.26.2011
Michael Lewis' 'Boomerang': 'Money Thrown Out in Hope, Coming Back in Anger'
Watch Michael Lewis' 'Boomerang': 'Money Thrown Out in Hope, Coming Back in Anger' on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.
What caused the economic troubles in Iceland, Greece, Ireland, Germany and elsewhere? Author Michael Lewis has some controversial theories involving sweeping character assessments of each nation. Lewis -- known for "Money Ball" and "The Blind Side" -- discusses his new book, "Boomerang".
10.24.2011
The Tsunami Of Cheap Credit
The tsunami of cheap credit that rolled across the planet between 2002 and 2008 was more than a simple financial phenomenon. It was temptation, offering entire societies the chance to reveal aspects of their characters they could not normally afford to indulge.
Entire countries were told the lights are out, you can do whatever you want to do and no one will ever know. - in The Spec
Entire countries were told the lights are out, you can do whatever you want to do and no one will ever know. - in The Spec
10.23.2011
Comparing The Irish To The Greeks
The Irish just have a greater talent for suffering. If you imposed on the Greeks what the Irish have imposed on the Irish population, people would be getting shot. - in Reuters
10.22.2011
Obama Is Going To Have Trouble
Obama is going to have trouble, because he has pursued much the same policy in relation to the Wall Street firms that the Bush administration did.
My feeling is that these people are more likely to energise the candidacy of some outsider, for example Elizabeth Warren, who is running for senate in Massachusetts. Her career could get very interesting very quickly, because she's been basically right about all this, yet she's been ostracised by the political system. She has this outsider, third party-ish aroma about her. - in GQ
My feeling is that these people are more likely to energise the candidacy of some outsider, for example Elizabeth Warren, who is running for senate in Massachusetts. Her career could get very interesting very quickly, because she's been basically right about all this, yet she's been ostracised by the political system. She has this outsider, third party-ish aroma about her. - in GQ
10.21.2011
OWS: I'm Just Surprised It Has Taken This Long
I felt the same outrage for three years working on The Big Short. Although I had this Wall Street background, I hadn't paid very much attention to the financial world. Until I started digging around and asking questions, I couldn't believe how bad it had gotten. When I published The Big Short, I sensed a level of outrage in this country that I had never felt before. I'm surprised it has taken this long for the political energy to develop, because it's so obviously outrageous what is happening. There are people at the top of the financial sector who think that the financial sector is out of control. The Chairman of the Federal Reserve has said he is sympathetic to the protesters. - in GQ Magazine
10.20.2011
Merkel And Papandreou Are Not Going To Survive
I don't think Merkel is going to survive in Germany and I don't think Papandreou is going to survive in Greece - they have so alienated their populations. - in Reuters
10.19.2011
The Credit Bubble: One Giant Temptation That Was Laid Before The Developed World
You can think about the credit bubble as one giant temptation that was laid before the developed world. Anybody who wanted to borrow basically could, in virtually unlimited sums. And given that temptation, different countries wanted to do different things with the money. - in NPR Books
Optimism Pays Off
Idiotic as optimism can sometimes seem, it has a weird habit of paying off. - in Boomerang, Travels In The New Third World
10.18.2011
Video Interview: Michael Lewis Talks About Occupy On Hardball
Michael Lewis talks about Occupy on Hardball and its latest book, Boomerang: Travels in the New Third World
Greece Is Defaulting, The Only Question Is How
Greece is defaulting, right? They are restructuring. Whatever you want to call it, Greece is defaulting. The only question is how. - in Reuters
10.07.2011
It’s Impossible To Predict What The Markets Are Going To Do
It’s impossible to predict what the markets are going to do, but if you’re asking me what smart people are doing, they have been for some time in metals, very risk-averse, out of debt entirely.
They make a persuasive case that we’re living in very perilous times. - in Bloomberg.com, October 5th
They make a persuasive case that we’re living in very perilous times. - in Bloomberg.com, October 5th
Investing In High Dividend Paying Battleship Companies That Can Withstand Recession
I’m always cautious, so I’m not a barometer of the times. I always have about 40-50 percent in the stock market, and it’s all in large-cap, high-dividend-paying battleship companies that can withstand recession. - in Bloomberg.com, October 5th
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