The Long Crisis

Jesse Eisinger reckons that America is cognitively incapable of understanding a long crisis as opposed to a short one: As a culture, we've gotten so good at disseminating and assimilating an idea and then moving on, that we can...

Jun 16 2008

For the Record

The wager entered into between me and Jesse Eisinger: that investment banks' bonus pool this year – in aggregate – will be at least 90% of the size it was last year. If it is, I win a bottle...

Oct 15 2007

Subprime: It's Not About Creditworthiness

A bit of a late start this morning, thanks to a Portfolio breakfast (of which more later) hosted by Jesse Eisinger on the subject of the subprime meltdown. Joe Mason of Drexel University was there, and was very rude...

Sep 26 2007

Illiquidity and Insolvency in the Commercial Real Estate Market

If you haven't read Jesse Eisinger's column on the CMBS market in the latest issue of Portfolio, do check it out – it's very good. As a special bonus for Market Movers readers, I followed up with him this...

Dec 17 2007

Municipal Bonds: Eisinger's Response to Carney

Jesse Eisinger is of course eternally grateful for my defense of his article against the imprecations of John Carney. But he has more to add: I'm grateful that John took some time out from reporting on the toilet situation...

Feb 26 2008

Extra Credit, Monday Edition

World Bank to Lend $100 Billion to Poor Nations Over 3 Years: Including $35 billion to middle-income countries by the middle of next year. Finally, the World Bank can start making money from lending again! Tosca Monthly Shareholder Report,...

Nov 11 2008

Conflicts of Interest at the Ratings Agencies

The problems come when a ratings agency, after having worked closely with an issuer for a long time, gets lazy about asking tough questions.

Aug 13 2007

Investment Banks: Not Dead Yet

Jesse Eisinger has the cover story of the November issue of Portfolio with an obituary for Wall Street. I wonder what Barry Ritholtz thinks about this: Barry is structurally bearish, and might be inclined to agree with Jesse's thesis,...

Oct 15 2007

Derivatives: Eisinger Responds

Jesse Eisinger explains why it makes sense to worry about the derivatives markets.

Apr 17 2007

The Muni Insurance Racket

In the March issue of Portfolio, Jesse Eisinger says that the municipal bond-insurance business is a racket. Back in December I noted that US municipalities pay $2 billion a year to the monolines for the dubious privilege of receiving...

Feb 12 2008

Recession: What can the President do?

Paul Krugman and Jesse Eisinger both have new columns out today, and they're remarkably similar, dealing as they do with what, if anything, the next president is going to be able to do about the economic malaise facing the...

Apr 14 2008

The Eddie Lampert Narrative: When We Last Saw Our Hero...

The investor once known as the "next Warren Buffett" comes to a new crossroads.

Jun 02 2008

Why the CDS Market Didn't Fail

Jane Baird has the latest on what Alea calls "the non-event of the year": the Lehman Brothers CDS settlement on Tuesday. The upshot is that there's very little to worry about: the worst-case scenario is limited to the failure...

Oct 19 2008

Wall Street Bonus Watch

Jesse Eisinger emails to say that he's hopeful about winning our bonus bet, in the wake of stories today in the WSJ and the NYT. Both of them report on projections from executive-compensation experts Options Group and Johnson Associates,...

Nov 07 2007

Why Taxing Trades Won't Improve Markets

Finally, a non-credit-crunch-related post. Jesse Eisinger has an intriguing column in the latest issue of Portfolio arguing for a small tax on the trading of stocks, bonds, and other instruments. (BTW, Jesse wrote a very prescient piece in October...

Sep 23 2008

Disclosures: The Long/Short Dual Standard

In Jesse Eisinger's column this month, he makes an interesting observation about David Einhorn in particular, and short-sellers in general: Whenever a short-seller criticizes a company, the firm and the media go out of their way to disclose that...

May 12 2008

Doom and Gloom at Derivatives Conference

There aren't a lot of champagne corks popping at the International Swaps and Derivatives Association annual meeting in Boston. Kicking off the conference, Bank of America C.E.O. Kenneth Lewis told the attendees that the industry should prepare for a...

Apr 18 2007

What Hope for Sears?

With the news that Sears has now lost Aylwin Lewis, its nominal CEO (the de facto CEO remains its owner, Eddie Lampert), I took the opportunity to ask Jesse Eisinger a few questions via IM about what is going on...

Jan 28 2008

The Bonus Bet

Some loyal readers may recall that back in October I entered into a wager with Jesse Eisinger, who had written in Portfolio that "bonus season this year will make Montgomery Burns look generous". If aggregate Wall Street bonuses fell by...

Jan 17 2008

Moody's to Rerate Munis

Laura Levenstein of Moody's says that she's going to start rating munis on the same scale as corporates. Alistair Barr reports: "Moody's recognizes that the municipal bond market has evolved, and with it we have taken steps to respond...

Mar 13 2008