Animal Spirits
Jim Anderson's Postcard from the Telecosm
August 30, 2010 Jim Anderson, CFA
With the economy tipping over into a second downturn and the big guns of fiscal and monetary policy already spent, it may be time to look at some of the fundamental psychological barriers to economic growth. Just to recap, the Fed has provided about $1.5 trillion in liquidity using their own balance sheet. Read More
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Home Sweet Home - The Main Event
Jim Anderson's Postcard from the Telecosm
August 24, 2010 Jim Anderson, CFA
Now that The Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010 is on the books, Congress has discovered it is time to address the actual source of the most recent financial instability. We are, of course, referring to the massive government intervention in the mortgage market, which progressed over a period of decades to the point where market distortions were commonplace. With the endorsement of Congress and the balance sheet power of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, loans to unqualified borrowers became standard practice. Read More
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United Penitentiary
Jim Anderson's Postcard from the Telecosm
August 17, 2010 Jim Anderson, CFA
The next time you're in line waiting to board a commercial airliner, turn around and take a look at the faces of those behind you. Look at their expressions. Are they excited? Are they expecting a magical journey through time and space at 600 miles an hour? (Maybe, if you are heading to Hawaii.) So what is that expression? Read More
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Finding Those Six-Sigma People
Jim Anderson's Postcard from the Telecosm
August 10, 2010 Jim Anderson, CFA

We’ve always been of the opinion that it is the extraordinary people who drive economies, not those that are at the average. We needn’t look any further than the U.S.

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Escaping the Telecosm
Jim Anderson's Postcard from the Telecosm
August 03, 2010 Jim Anderson, CFA
We're feeling a little chagrined to admit that the Wall Street Journal exposé of Internet snooping caught us by surprise. The study, entitled "The Web's New Gold Mine: Your Secrets," published this weekend found that assorted Internet traffic-analyst companies and other interested parties routinely store thousands of tracking files on the computers that access certain Web sites. Read More
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Goldman's Gold
Jim Anderson's Postcard from the Telecosm
July 27, 2010 Jim Anderson, CFA
It is with some temerity that I put fingers to keyboard to write about Goldman Sachs' recently settled legal dispute with the SEC. If you recall, in May the SEC charged the firm with fraud in the brokering of a synthetic collateralized debt obligation with the catchy name, CDO Abacus 2007-AC1. Read More
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The Small Laws
Jim Anderson's Postcard from the Telecosm
July 20, 2010 Jim Anderson, CFA
On June 28 theFinancial Timesreported on its front page that two private equity funds were carrying the same investment at substantially different values. Read More
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You Get What You Pay For
Jim Anderson's Postcard from the Telecosm
July 06, 2010 Jim Anderson, CFA
It may be common sense to think that if you raise the price or value of something you will getmore of it, but it is also a basic rule of economics. Read More
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The Limits to Keynesian Excess
Jim Anderson's Postcard from the Telecosm
June 29, 2010 Jim Anderson, CFA
There may have been some hot confrontations in Toronto this weekend as the G-20 gathered to talk about the world's problems. We're not referring to the $1 billion security detail struggling to control the roaming groups of union protestors and assorted fringe groups, but rather the conflicting economic strategies of the U.S. and Europe. Read More
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A Tie?
Jim Anderson's Postcard from the Telecosm
June 15, 2010 Jim Anderson, CFA
It was a bit of an embarrassment watching American World Cup fans around the country cheering the 1-1 tie with England. That is like cheering the outcome of the baseball's 2002 All Star Game or the finish to the Korean War. Sure the U.S. was an underdog, but a tie can hardly be considered a victory. Read More
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