Rick Bookstaber Sun 2009-08-30 12:07 EDT

Not with a Bang but a Whimper -- The Risk from High Frequency and Algorithmic Trading

Rick Bookstaber

``There is a general view that one way or another the end result of all the high frequency and algorithmic trading will be a blowup. But I don't think the risk is as big as many are making it out to be...the risk of a cataclysm is constrained by the lack of feedback and lack of tight coupling...As the field gets increasingly crowded, market impact will rise and opportunities will diminish'' First, let me point out the difference between high frequency trading and algorithmic trading. Both execute using computers, and since computers work really fast, both can be accused of whatever sins are embodied in millisecond trading. High frequency trading is a type of proprietary trading. The trader (or his computer) sees a profit opportunity and trades accordingly. This profit opportunity...

algorithmic trading; bang; High Frequency; Rick Bookstaber; Risk; Whimper.

Credit Writedowns Wed 2009-08-26 16:38 EDT

The FDIC and the socialization of banking losses

With the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) about to release its latest figures for banks it regulates and its own financial condition, now is a good time to review its role in this crisis. This post is about the FDIC's role in the credit crisis, how it seizes banks and why I believe this matters. [...] ``the way assets are seized and sold represents a redistribution of income from taxpayers to the acquiring entities''

banks losses; credit writedowns; FDIC; social.

ClubOrlov Wed 2009-08-26 11:24 EDT

Definancialisation, Deglobalisation, Relocalisation

kollapsnik

This talk was presented at The New Emergency Conference in Dublin, on June 11, 2009. ``we all have to prepare for life without much money, where imported goods are scarce, and where people have to provide for their own needs, and those of their immediate neighbours'' ``Most of the wealth is in very few private hands right now. Governments and the vast majority of the people only have debt. It is important to convince people who control all this wealth that they really have two choices. They can trust their investment advisers, maintain their current portfolios, and eventually lose everything. Or they can use their wealth to reengage with people and the land in new ways, in which case they stand a chance of saving something for themselves and their children. They can build and launch lifeboats, recruit crew, and set them sailing.'' 1. Good morning. The title of this talk is a bit of a mouthful, but what I want to say can be summed up in simpler words: we all have to prepare for life without much money, where imported goods are scarce, and where people have to provide for their own needs, and those of their immediate neighbours. I will take as my point of departure the unfolding collapse of the global economy, and discuss what might come next. It started with the collapse of the financial markets last year, and is now resulting in unprecedented decreases in the volumes of international trade. These developments are also starting to affect the political stability of...

ClubOrlov; Definancialisation; Deglobalisation; relocalisation.

Thu 2009-07-30 00:00 EDT

Michael Hudson: The Toll Booth Economy

Michael Hudson: The Toll Booth Economy -- by Michael Hudson ``The Latest in Junk Economics'' What is missing is a critique of the big picture how Wall Street has financialized the public domain to inaugurate a neo-feudal tollbooth economy while privatizing the government itself, headed by the Treasury and Federal Reserve. Left untouched is the story how industrial capitalism has succumbed to an insatiable and unsustainable finance capitalism, whose newest final stage seems to be a zero-sum game of casino capitalism based on derivative swaps and kindred hedge fund gambling innovations...What have been lost are the Progressive Eras two great reforms. First, minimizing the economys free lunch of unearned income (e.g., monopolistic privilege and privatization of the public domain in contrast to ones own labor and enterprise) by taxing absentee property rent and asset-price (capital) gains, by keeping natural monopolies in the public domain, and by anti-trust regulation...A second Progressive Era aim was to steer the financial sector so as to fund capital formation. Industrial credit was best achieved in Germany and Central Europe in the decades prior to World War I. But the Allied victory led to the dominance of Anglo-American banking practice, based on loans against property or income streams already in place. Todays bank credit has become decoupled from capital formation, taking the form mainly of mortgage credit (80 per cent), and loans secured by corporate stock (for mergers, acquisitions and corporate raids) as well as for speculation. The effect is to spur asset-price inflation on credit, in ways that benefit the few at the expense of the economy at large.''

Michael Hudson; Toll Booth Economy.

Tue 2009-06-16 00:00 EDT

naked capitalism: Guest Post: Wall Street Back To Its Criminal Ways?

Merrill Lynch KIMCO transaction ``stinks to high heaven''

Criminal Ways; Guest Post; naked capitalism; Wall Street.

Tue 2009-06-16 00:00 EDT

AlterNet: Goldman Sachs Shook Tens of Billions Out of Tax-Payers -- Now They're Whining All the Way to the Bank

by Dean Baker

AlterNet; bank; billions; Goldman Sachs Shook Tens; tax payers; way; Whining.

Tue 2009-06-16 00:00 EDT

naked capitalism: Guest Post: Backdoor Way Investors Can Clear Housing Inventory

buying tax liens

Backdoor Way Investors; Clear Housing Inventory; Guest Post; naked capitalism.

Thu 2009-05-07 00:00 EDT

naked capitalism: Goldman: Global Oil Storage Capacity Could Be Filled by June

commenter Hugh: ``Oil in the short term was way overpriced (excess speculation) and in the long term absurdly underpriced (peak oil)''

fill; Global Oil Storage Capacity; Goldman; June; naked capitalism.

Wed 2009-04-01 00:00 EDT

Shiller: House Prices Still Way Too High

''house prices are still only halfway back down to fair value''

high; Housing Prices; Shiller; way.

Wed 2009-04-01 00:00 EDT

AlterNet: The Only Way to Avoid Wasting Many Billions More: Take Over the Banks

by Joseph Stiglitz, The Nation

AlterNet; avoiding waste; bank; billions; take; way.

Fri 2009-01-16 00:00 EST

naked capitalism: Citi on Its Way to Breakup?

breakups; Citi; naked capitalism; way.

Fri 2008-12-12 00:00 EST

AlterNet: Chomsky: Is There Truth in Obama's Advertising?

AlterNet: Noam Chomsky: Is There Truth in Obama's Advertising? ``what's happened to the country...is that there was extensive and very constructive activism in the 1960s...And the activism did civilize the country''; Tom Ferguson's investment theory of politics; Brand Obama; ``The goal of advertising is to create uninformed consumers who will make irrational choices...And when they turn to selling a candidate they do the same thing...So you undermine democracy pretty much the same way you undermine markets.''

AlterNet; Chomsky; Obama's Advertising; truth.

Sun 2008-11-23 00:00 EST

Michael Hudson: Bankers Shake Down Congress and the G-20

(CounterPunch); ``all markets are planned, and have been ever since calendars were developed...Most market structures throughout history have been organized in a way that provides the vested interests with a free lunch. This remains the essence of post-feudal capitalism or as some have expressed it, corporativism.''

Bankers Shake; Congress; G-20; Michael Hudson.

Tue 2008-10-07 00:00 EDT

naked capitalism: A Better Way to Use That $700 Billion

Morris Goldstein

700; better way; naked capitalism; use.

Tue 2008-09-23 00:00 EDT

The Perilous Price of Oil - The New York Review of Books

The Perilous Price of Oil, by George Soros - The New York Review of Books; ``prices in financial markets do not necessarily tend toward equilibrium...There is a two-way, reflexive interplay between biased market perceptions and the fundamentals, and that interplay can carry markets far from equilibrium. Every sequence of boom and bust, or bubble, begins with some fundamental change, such as the spread of the Internet, and is followed by a misinterpretation of the new trend in prices that results from the change. Initially that misinterpretation reinforces both the trend and the misinterpretation itself; but eventually the gap between reality and the market's interpretation of reality becomes too wide to be sustainable.''

books; New York Review; Oil; Perilous Price.

Tue 2008-08-26 00:00 EDT

The End of the Beginning -- Developments in the Credit Crisis

The End of the Beginning - Developments in the Credit Crisis, by Satyajit Das (Prudent Bear); 2008-05-27; ``limited recognition of the massive de-leveraging of the global financial system that is under way.'' ``The banking systems ability to supply credit is significantly impaired and will remain so for the foreseeable future.'' ``Changes in financial markets will have a significant impact on many companies that now rely on financial engineering rather than real engineering'' Das proposes: ``holdings and values of risky assets held by banks and investment banks must be accurately determined...Risky assets must be valued on a hold-to-maturity basis...Mark-to-market accounting should be suspended...Capital levels should be set on a bank-by-bank basis by regulators...Capital requirements should be eased...government [should] guarantee of all major bank liabilities''

Begins; credit crisis; develop; ending.