vboring

Opportunities in the Real Crisis: Water

the point, so emphatically stated by user**** above, is that people consider access to water a right.

so be careful of any company privatizing water supplies. Bolivia showed us what happens when you take something that people consider a right and try to turn it into a commodity.

Are IPOs Heating Up? A123 Files.

A123 batteries rock the party. the B&D tools built around them are as powerful as corded tools and fully recharge during a coffee break.

and they supposedly last for thousands of cycles.

Is the FHA Effectively Condoning Mortgage Fraud?

it means that the buyers should be able to afford their loans. it also means that they have no skin in the game. so if the bet goes the wrong way, it is easy for them to ditch the property and let the FHA eat the losses.

FHA does do real underwriting, right?

An Energy Policy that Makes Cents (and Sense)

incentives are ridiculous and open to perversion.

just use the markets: cap and trade all CO2 production, including gas and diesel.

the markets will find the most efficient answer.

meanwhile, continue funding fundamental research no market would ever pay for.

Is Something Cooking in Microhoo's Kitchen? (Update)

maybe it is an idiotic idea and MSFT is looking for a way to quietly back out.

yahoo brings nothing but headaches and redundant divisions to MSFT.

Memo to eBay: Just Sell Skype Already

isn't the PC-to-Phone (and Phone-to-PC) communication a tech that skype offers and google talk doesn't?

Wal-Mart: What PR Won't Fix

y'know what other companies were generous with benefits for labor?

Ford and GM.

maybe Walmart is smart to be evil.

Bernanke Brushes Aside Inflation, Focuses on Growth

how can there be a 90% chance of a .25 cut and a 20% chance of a .5 cut?

Why Yesterday's Optimism Wasn't Warranted

otoh,

people are tired of negative nominal returns from managed treasury accounts, don't trust or understand commodities, and won't put more money into real estate right now.

if every other investment option is worse, the stock market is comparatively attractive.

Why Yesterday's Optimism Wasn't Warranted

don't trust market optimism.

if loan performance is worsening worldwide, only about 25% of the estimated losses have been written down (292B out of 1.2T), and industry is slumping (auto sales down more than 15% yoy), how do markets go up?

how does any of this represent a bottom?

Big Ben, Please Tell Us You Have a Plan B

given today's massive rally on uniformly bad news, Ben will be hard pressed to justify any cut at all.

Internet Hoax Gooses Stock Market

is this post an april fool's joke? all of the links in it are dead.

Hitting the Reset Button On Home Mortgages

it sounds like anger is starting to build up on all sides. hopefully there will be enough anger that the gov't will be forced to roll some heads.

some white men in expensive suits need to go to jail for this mess.

as for the bailout proposals, they need to differentiate between home investors and home owners, because investors shouldn't be bailed out. maybe some witless owners should. how to tell the difference?

if you can sustainably afford your original loan, you are an owner. if you can't, you're an investor. any bailout should only help people who can afford their loans, but who are now incentivised to abandon them because of negative equity.

The Credit Crunch: Taking Personal Responsibility

bad housing advice:

the person who put $0 on their house has the ability to dump an of decreasing value for somebody else to worry about.

the person who put $100k down is out $100k and still has negative equity, so it is still in their best interest to leave it to the bank.

i'd be mad as hell if i put 20% down on a house in Miami 2 years ago.

Should Wall Street Have Saved Itself?

some poorly run institutions choose to compete with each other to be the most idiotic for their own backwards reasons.

they choose to do it. nobody forced their hands.