28 Feb 2010

Warren Buffett on foolish acquisitions

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In his 2009 Letter to Shareholders the sage from Omaha says it better than we ever could: many acquisitions are value-destroying.

Overpaying for Acquisitions

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We were quite staggered by the prices some Western Banks paid when they acquired banks in 'high growth potential markets' in Easter...

How to regulate Derivatives

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Warren Buffett famously described Derivatives as Weapons of 'Financial mass destruction' (2002 Letter to Shareholders of Berkshir...
27 Feb 2010

Goldman and Greece: Barron's pullls no punches

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Barron's Magazine is traditionally a magazine that defends free markets and capitalism. So it comes as a surprise when the Editorial Co...
24 Feb 2010

Poor Defense of Speculation

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Darrell Duffie tries to revive well-worn arguments ( Wall Street Journal, 24 Feb 2010 ) in defense of unrestrained speculation and does a ...
22 Feb 2010

The Donkey and BNP Paribas

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Watching CNBC I could hardly believe my eyes when I spotted a middle-aged French lady rattling on about her life, that she dreamed of being ...

Fraud Prevention - Banks walk on thin Ice

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News that a subsidiary of Nord LB ( Norddeutsche Landesbank ) in Switzerland may have fallen victim to a fraud in its trade finance activ...
19 Feb 2010

BNP Paribas Compensation: A Model to follow?

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BNP states that is will reduce its compensation-to-income ratio to 27 per cent for FY 2009. In doing so management claims to address public...
18 Feb 2010

Goldman Sachs Business Principles

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We still have the last edition of Goldman's phone directory that we received before moving on. Point 1 states: Out clients' interes...

Greece: Why not declaring bankruptcy?

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Martin Feldstein's piece in yesterday's Financial Times ( Let Greece take a holiday from the Eurozone ) caused us to send him a br...