Why these obscure products could cause the next global financial crisis. At the heart of the global financial crisis of 2007-09 was an obscure credit derivative called the collateralised debt obligation (CDO). CDOs were financial products based on debts – most notoriously residential mortgages – which were sold by banks to other banks and institutional investors. The profitability […]
… was a famous quote of appreciation attributed to Martin Winterkorn, Volkswagen’s former CEO, when closing the door of a KIA sedan at a car exhibition a few years ago. While Mr Winterkorn moved from the boardroom to the court room battling accusations in the wake of Volkswagen’s emission scandal, the automotive world’s attention shifted […]
“No wonder people f—–g hate landlords.” That was what comedian Andy Richter tweeted (since deleted). What caused that reaction? A landlord wanted six month’s advance rent on an apartment he was seeking for his son. However, that expletive reflects misunderstanding rather than justifiable derision, of a type I call greedy-bastard economics. In greedy-bastard economics, rather […]
The Biden administration may yet rue its tax and spend agenda. Writing a year ago, during the uncertain early days of the pandemic, we predicted that the US government would come to the rescue of the private sector in a manner that was likely to be transformative to the devastated economy. However, welcome and necessary […]
Overconfidence can be ruinous in real estate and elsewhere. Overconfidence is a cognitive error that we make routinely. It’s the tendency to hold a false assessment of our skills, intellect or talent. Take this article, for example: I expected to write it in about three hours, but it has taken much longer because I overestimated […]
Maybe it’s just me, but I have a nagging feeling that my gender, which once was fairly successful – Jonas Salk, Saul Bellow, Lowell Thomas, Tom Jones, the list goes on – is sagging and sinking, uncertain about changing norms of behaviour, and we don’t whoop and holler the way we used to, and what […]
There’s a faded silver cup on my bookshelf. If you look closely at it, a faded imprint reads ‘eSpeed: We Are Markets’. I received it at a securities industry trade show in the summer of 2001 after a friendly conversation with a gentleman at a booth display. On September 11, 2001, that man and over […]
I was having a hard time falling asleep the other night because I’d thought of something that I was afraid of forgetting if I fell asleep, which was keeping me awake. Not that it was the sort of timeless thing you see printed on coffee cups sold in bookstores, like, “Hope is the thing with […]
Europeans and other Western nations have dominated automotive excellence for over a century. Whether it’s the satisfying thud of the door closing on a Volkswagen from Wolfsburg or the beauty of a Ferrari from Modena, these brands are iconic – and very lucrative for their manufacturers. When we think of reliability, the Germans, and latterly the Japanese, have had […]
Originally published September 2017. This November I clock up 50 years as an estate agent – and what have I learnt or gained from this experience? Well, I have tried alternative business options over the last five decades but still ended up selling second hand houses for a living, and have I enjoyed it? On […]
