Jonathan Bernstein

SIVs: Employing All the Abuses the Credit Bubble Made Famous

Hi there Really, nice to have informed commenters who keep us writers on their toes. You are correct, Cheyne SIV was managed by hedge fund Cheyne Capital; it was marketed by Morgan Stanley (which is what landed MS in court). I don't disagree with you about assets in runoff mode; I think my usage, "being unwound," is pretty close in meaning to that. Nor do I disagree about different SIVs doing different things; I said (for example) that some employed multiple layers of leverage and some did not. As for Citi, I did not say or mean to imply that Citi's investment bank ran the SIV business, only that in some cases the bank and the manager were the same.

Is the Dollar Dead in the Long Run?

Reader DW Stein assumes that my analysis starts from the USD rather than the economy. It may have to look that way in a short article. However, I mention the deeper causal factors: the current account deficit, caused by "our stance as importer from the world" (last paragraph). As to my view of the current economy: I see continued US weakness, as explained in the editorials on theinsightfultrader.com. And as long as the world expects US demand to fuel growth in our trading partners, and our economy remains weak, that weakness will be one of our few exports.

Regarding my allusion to Keynes: things move much faster than they did in Keynes's time and I don't care to be on the wrong side of the bigger forces, though that means I occasionally have to stop out and reposition.

Stephen Leeb's 'Game Over': Good Advice for Tough Times

In my reply, I meant to say, Australia "short of coastal sites" suitable for nuclear plants that are convenient to Australia's existing power grid. Hopefully that was clear.

Stephen Leeb's 'Game Over': Good Advice for Tough Times

Regarding Australian sites for nuclear plants, Leeb might have been more precise if he had said, "Australia decided not to build new plants on rivers," and I would have done well to look into that issue more. Seems like Australia is at least thinking about building plants on its coasts: www.abc.net.au/science.... On the other hand, as the article says, that country may be short of sites that are convenient to its existing power grid. Since energy is lost over long distance transmission that is not exactly a trivial problem.

Justbrowsing: "I" write the editorials for theinsightfultrader.com, and that is how my work got to Seeking Alpha. In editorial writing, "we" is customary usage, as you may know. But we understand your objection, lol.