Monday, 16 May 2011

Bailout Nation - Books



Barry Ritholtz

Bailout Nation, with New Post-Crisis Update: How Greed and Easy Money Corrupted Wall Street and Shook the World Economy

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Best books to make sense of financial crisis of 2009" (USA Today)"Best business books of 2009" (Miami Herald)
"Investment Book of the Year" (Stock Trader’s Almanac)
"Succeeds in laying out all that transpired in easy-to-understand language. If you want to know how we got into this mess and what might still be coming, this is the book for you." (Wall Street Journal)
"The author writes with the fury of an insider mortified by the behavior of his heretical peers . . . There is much to be said for the book’s irreverence. Mr. Ritholtz has written an important book about a complicated subject, and yet you could still read it at the beach. Here’s hoping that some policy makers in Washington take it with them on vacation this month." (New York Times)
"Ritholtz makes a valuable new contribution to our understanding of how we arrived at this sorry juncture. He’s smart, sassy and often amusing. If you’re looking for an all-in-one place explanation of what went wrong and why, this is the book for you (or your confused neighbor)." (Bloomberg)
"Bailout Nation’s straightforward, compelling account puts the crisis in context, explains why the US government responded so stupidly, offers solutions, and advises how to prevent a repeat. Ritholtz’s indictment of the financial and political establishment is devastatingly accurate." (Asia Times)
"Before the housing and credit bubbles popped, Barry Ritholtz, a lawyer turned blogger and money manager, was one of the voices crying in the wilderness. His caustic (and occasionally profane) blog, The Big Picture, dissected macroeconomic news and relentlessly cut through spin. His book takes a long view of the roots of the economic crisis, tracing the history of a series of ever more expensive taxpayer-funded bailouts of failed industries." (Newsweek)
"Ritholtz’s book seeks to explain how the United States, once so proud, became "a nanny state for well-paid bankers. Ritholtz may be just the right person to explain the transition to both the disillusioned amateur and the finance junkie. He doesn’t pull his punches or bury the truth in layers of finance-speak, caveats, and disclaimers. Since he began blogging seven years ago, in-the-know readers of his popular blog, The Big Picture, have turned to Ritholtz for his prescient, refreshingly honest commentary on the economy. Anyone interested in understanding the roots of our current crisis should check out the book.." (Freakonomics)
"A comprehensive crisis scrapbook compiled by the money manager behind the popular financial blog the Big Picture in a quippy, no-nonsense voice..." (New York Magazine)
"These are some of the provocative and even dangerous questions that Barry Ritholtz takes on in Bailout Nation…Above all, Bailout Nation is about the socialization of risk and the privatization of profits." (Forbes) --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

Product Description

An engaging look at what led to the financial turmoil we now find ourselves inBailout Nation offers one of the clearest looks at the financial lenders, regulators, and politicians responsible for the financial crisis of 2008. Written by Barry Ritholtz, one of today's most popular economic bloggers and a well-established industry pundit, this book skillfully explores how the United States evolved from a rugged independent nation to a soft Bailout Nation-where financial firms are allowed to self-regulate in good times, but are bailed out by taxpayers in bad times.
Entertaining and informative, this book clearly shows you how years of trying to control the economy with easy money has finally caught up with the federal government and how its practice of repeatedly rescuing Wall Street has come back to bite them.
  • The definitive book on the financial crisis of 2008
  • Names the culprits responsible for this tragedy-from financial regulators to politicians
  • Shows how each bailout throughout modern history has impacted what happened in the future
  • Examines why the consumer/taxpayer is left suffering in an economy of bubbles, bailouts, and possible inflation
  • Ritholtz operates a hugely popular blog, www.ritholtz.com/blog
Scathing, but fair, Bailout Nation is a voice of reason in these uncertain economic times.


All information on this website is for educational purposes only and is not intended to provide financial advise. Any statements about profits or income, expressed or implied, does not represent a guarantee. Your actual trading may result in losses as no trading system is guaranteed. You accept full responsibilities for your actions, trades, profit or loss, and agree to hold MinKL Invest harmless in any and all ways.

Sex, lies and the reckless choices of the powerful

Sex, lies and the reckless choices of the powerful


http://www.theedgemalaysia.com/politics/186589-sex-lies-and-the-reckless-choices-of-the-powerful.html
WASHINGTON: Sex and power are no strangers. History is littered with tales of the powerful and privileged felled by sex scandals, according to a Reuters report on Sunday, May 15.
But make no mistake. If IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn is found guilty as charged of attempting to rape a hotel maid in New York City, he would be in a league virtually of his own.
Few have been accused of a violent crime like Strauss-Kahn. The world financier and French presidential hopeful was charged on Sunday with criminal sexual act, unlawful imprisonment and attempted rape in New York City after a hotel maid said she was assaulted.
"Politics and power and sexual harassment certainly have a long history," said Michele Swers, associate professor of government at Georgetown University. "This being an attempted criminal rape is, I think, of an order of a different magnitude."
There is no shortage of powerful leaders who fell from grace for affairs, prostitutes and groping. Sexual indiscretions have weakened governments and buried political careers on both sides of the Atlantic, today and in ages past.
Among the most famous is the Profumo scandal in 1963 in which a British war secretary was forced to resign because he had an affair with a prostitute linked to a Russian spy.
The Strauss-Kahn case raises some of the same questions that surface in any scandal where politics and sex intersect. Did the accused abuse power to engage in high-risk behavior, and did power make him feel invincible, above the law?
Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, former U.S. President Bill Clinton, ex-New York Governor Eliot Spitzer and 2012 presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich are just a few of the powerful who have faced that kind of scrutiny, although none had to answer to charges of violent crime.
"Power is an aphrodisiac, as is well known, and we know as well that power in one sense is often presumed to be power in another sense," said James Walston, professor of Italian politics at the American University of Rome.
"So a person who is head of the IMF might think he can get away with anything. Certainly Berlusconi appears to think that way."
Berlusconi, 74, a towering figure of Italy's center right, is facing four concurrent trials for corruption, tax fraud and, most sensationally, sex with an underage prostitute and then using his office to cover it up. The sex charge followed years of rumors of his sexual misbehavior.
Strauss-Kahn is no stranger to these questions. In 2008, he was investigated by the IMF over possible abuse of power over a brief affair with an economist at the Fund who was his subordinate. The affair was consensual and he was cleared, but he apologized publicly for "a serious error of judgment."
France, like Italy, traditionally is quite tolerant of extra-marital affairs, unlike the United States. The out-of-wedlock daughter of former President Francois Mitterand attended his funeral. This time though, French politicians and the public were shocked. The charges "struck like a thunderbolt," in the words of the leader of the Socialist Party to which Strauss-Kahn belonged..
Strauss-Kahn, 62, is due to appear in court later on Sunday and his wife, a successful French media personality, has said she has "no doubt his innocence will be re-established."
'EGOTISM, NARCISSISM'
It is rare for a politician to go to jail for a sex crime. Former Israeli President Moshe Katsav was sentenced in March to seven years in prison for rape when he was a Cabinet minister in the late 1990s. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said it showed "no person is above the law."
One pattern psychologists detect in top politicians is a readiness to engage in an extreme amount of risk-taking, said Frank Farley, a psychologist at Temple University in Philadelphia, In the Strauss-Kahn case, if true, Farley said a crime would be "exceptionally risky."
"Risk-taking is one of the essential ingredients in highly successful or leading public figures and politicians," said Farley. "Strauss-Kahn (case) fits that bill."
Clinton also fits the profile. He came from modest means, faced many ups and downs in his political path to the presidency, only to risk all when he had an affair with intern Monica Lewinsky in the White House.
Adulation awarded to high-fliers can also contribute...........

All information on this website is for educational purposes only and is not intended to provide financial advise. Any statements about profits or income, expressed or implied, does not represent a guarantee. Your actual trading may result in losses as no trading system is guaranteed. You accept full responsibilities for your actions, trades, profit or loss, and agree to hold MinKL Invest harmless in any and all ways.

Uh-Oh: Gold on the Cover of NYT Magazine ?

I am not quite sure what to make of this NYT magazine cover. On the one hand, it is gold on the cover of a mainstream magazine.
But its less convincing as a magazine cover contrary indicator. Compare it to the Housing peak covers inFortune (May 2005) or Time (June 2005).
The focus here is not on the investment aspect, but rather is a profile on a gold surveyor, and on Gold “as the world’s most primitive form of wealth.” Hardly the gushing endorsements we typically like to see as contrary indicators.



All information on this website is for educational purposes only and is not intended to provide financial advise. Any statements about profits or income, expressed or implied, does not represent a guarantee. Your actual trading may result in losses as no trading system is guaranteed. You accept full responsibilities for your actions, trades, profit or loss, and agree to hold MinKL Invest harmless in any and all ways.

Malaysia Stocks to Rally 50% on Growing Capex - CNBC

Malaysia Stocks to Rally 50% on Growing Capex - CNBC

Malaysia grabbed headlines late last week when it announced an oil and gas project worth $20 billion in the southern state of Johor. State-run oil major Petronas[PNAGF Unavailable () ] will build an integrated refinery and petrochemical complex and raise the country's total refining capacity to almost 1 million barrels per day.
A car is parked at a newly opened Malays
AFP | Getty Images
Malaysia wants to attract $444 billion in investments over the next 10 years.

Analysts say growing capital expenditure projects such as this will help the country’s stock market extend its bull run for another two years and gain another 50 percent.
Malaysian stocks have rebounded strongly from the financial crisis; the Kuala Lumpur Composite Index is up more than 80 percent from its lows in December 2008.
But that’s still short of the impressive gains posted by Southeast Asian peers such as Thailand and Indonesia, which are up about 160 percent and 200 percent respectively.
Still, analysts are optimistic that Malaysia’s ambitious economic plan will act as a catalyst for more gains in Malaysian equities.
Malaysia aims to attract over $444 billion in investments over next 10 years, to help kick start a new capex cycle.
Of this, 8 percent will be from government spending, 92 percent from private investment.
This, says Claire Chin, Head of Malaysia Research of CLSA, will be achieved via large scale infrastructure investments in Kuala Lumpur and the Iskandar project in Southern Malaysia, as well as oil and gas investments by Petronas..........

All information on this website is for educational purposes only and is not intended to provide financial advise. Any statements about profits or income, expressed or implied, does not represent a guarantee. Your actual trading may result in losses as no trading system is guaranteed. You accept full responsibilities for your actions, trades, profit or loss, and agree to hold MinKL Invest harmless in any and all ways.