With the Martin Luther King holiday on Monday, this is a long weekend in the US. Whether or not you're able to have the next three days off, here are five items to check out.
- Breakingviews.com has a sobering piece about reviving the world's burst bubble seeming farther away than ever. The news about banks in the US and Ireland is indeed troubling, and Breakingviews wonders if governments will eventually follow the same path already traveled by Argentina and Zimbabwe. Bill Gross stated in the first installment of this year's Barron's Roundtable that Zimbabwe is a case in and of itself. Still, you have to wonder. From the linked article: "It's not yet the time. But monetising bad debt and devaluing paper money may in the end be the only way of reviving the world's burst-bubble economy." Good grief.
- Michael Sesit worries on Bloomberg that the Obama effect won't last: "The U.S. president-elect is so admired, engenders such high aspirations and is such a wellspring of hope that no one could meet these expectations. That’s bad news for financial markets." Actually, it doesn't matter how bad things are in the first two years of Obama's term, as long as things start picking up as 2012 nears. He'll get the credit and cruise to re-election, winning every state he won last November plus a few more. The risk for him is that the deleveraging process will take, say, five years and swallow up his entire term in office.
- John Dorfman pens a worthwhile consideration of fund managers, noting that even the best see considerable variation in yearly returns. As Warren Buffett said, “I would much rather earn a lumpy 15 percent over time than a smooth 12 percent.”
- David Craig asks in The Spectator -- "Can hedge funds live to fight another day?"
- Robert Stewart, former CEO of the Royal/Dutch Shell Group in Bermuda, wrote "The Crisis in 10 Points." He wrote the essay to help explain the financial crisis to members of various boards of companies he sits on.
Have a great weekend. See you next week.
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