Of Greek Bondage

Update: Link corrected!


I had a bad experience in Greece- there was vomiting, a stray dog that followed me into the hotel lobby and peed on the floor, and porn on an alarmingly high percentage of the channels during the day.  I've been assured that my trip was atypical.  That said, Greece isn't sounding so great these days.

Vanity Fair: Beware of Greeks Bearing Bonds

Ok...progress?

July 8, 2009:

"Above all, the intention to do good must not be considered incompatible with the effective capacity to produce goods," Benedict said. "Financiers must rediscover the genuinely ethical foundation of their activity, so as not to abuse the sophisticated instruments which can serve to betray the interests of savers."

September 24, 2009:

"Mr. Gotti Tedeschi's appointment, one Vatican official said, shows the bank is "moving in the direction of more transparency, but it's hard to predict what concrete changes will be made."

...

In the late 1980s, Italian magistrates investigated the IOR [Vatican Bank]for contributing to the 1982 collapse of Banco Ambrosiano. The Vatican, which was a shareholder in the bank, repeatedly denied wrongdoing and invoked a treaty with Italy that shields the Vatican from Italian investigations under its status as an independent sovereign state. The Vatican, denying any wrongdoing, eventually agreed to pay $250 million to Banco Abrosiano's creditors."

CNN: Pope blasts capitalism ahead of G-8 meeting

WSJ: Vatican Revamps Its Bank's Ranks

Don't even think it!

"If airlines could prohibit passengers via regulation to carry food on flights, it should improve the ancillary revenue stream opportunities considerably. Assuming the majority of passengers decided against eating prior to departure, the industry would benefit from a potentially larger audience--the five-year average number of annual enplanements (defined as one fare-paying passenger) was approximately 746 million according to the Bureau of Transportation. In addition, these other revenue streams would enhance profitability tremendously because the markups on these products would likely remain excessive. Although the public would negatively react to this change, this structure is analogous to the setup at every major sporting event venue or concert hall."

Once airlines started floating the idea of dispensing with seats it seemed nothing else was sacred. On short haul flights it doesn't seem so bad-indeed, many airlines do it already- but forcing travelers to pay for meals on a 10 hour trans-continental flight seems even less in keeping with the natural order than getting in a metal tube and hurtling four miles above the ocean in the first place.

Morningstar: Will the airline industry face heavy turbulence?

Morningstar:

That's a lot of...cheddar?

I'm moving to Italy to start a bank.

"Gianni Zonin, an Italian bank chairman and wine producer, is proposing that banks accept expensive wines and legs of prosciutto as collateral on loans to producers....'The Italian bank Credito Emiliano has long stored hundreds of thousands of parmesan wheels, worth about 300 euros each, in warehouses as collateral while they age.'"

Planet Money: Loan Collateral, Italian Style

"All about the Benjamins" won't make any sense

There are ads in all the Metro stations imploring people to use Sacajawea dollars, "They last for decades and save the nation money!". If we're still struggling with dollars in coin form I'm sure these redesigns for paper money won't make it too far past the drawing board, but they do strike an interesting balance between form and function.

The Steel Closet: Redesigns of the U.S. Dollar

Addenda

The New York Times ran an article today that touches on the same theme as the WSJ piece in the previous post.  I don't think it's nearly as horrifying, since it focuses as much on the fired workers as on the employers.  By the way, WSJ's Wealth Report blog included a separate post today about firing household employees. I debated whether to include this clip because I don't want to sound like a class warrior, but it's hard to pass up:

The personal assistant [who was told she'd have to take a pay cut] then discovered the family was spending $12,000 on outdoor Christmas lights. She confronted the employers, who told her that they had to buy the lights to “keep up appearances” for the neighbors.

NYT:  Trickledown Downsizing

WSJ: How to Downsize Your Nanny

The Sage of Omaha's Secret

Don't you just love curling up with a good shareholder letter? Berkshire Hathaway's are actually not too painful. Warren Buffett discusses the previous year's acquisitions and developments in language that is only occasionally over my head, sprinkled with some slightly off-color jokes including one about Mitt Romney. Not only does he use a surprisingly readable tone to describe both his own holdings and macroeconomic trends, Buffett also discusses his missteps and successes with equal frankness. I think this excerpt gives an interesting overview of his investment strategy. The 2008 letter will certainly be worth a look.

"I should emphasize that we do not measure the progress of our investments by what their market prices do during any given year. Rather, we evaluate their performance by the two methods we apply to the businesses we own. The first test is improvement in earnings, with our making due allowance for industry conditions. The second test, more subjective, is whether their “moats” – a metaphor for the superiorities they possess that make life difficult for their competitors – have widened during the year. "

Also interesting:
"A footnote: We paid the IRS tax of $1.2 billion on our PetroChina gain. This sum paid all costs of the U.S. government – defense, social security, you name it – for about four hours."

Berkshire Hathaway 2007 Shareholder Letter
Berkshire Hathaway Shareholder Letters 1977-2007

G20 Menu

Here is the White House menu for today's G20 meeting to discuss a response to the financial crisis. It's a pretty hefty spread, but still quite a contrast from the menu at the G8 meeting. Of course the latter meeting was much more formal than today's session; but I'd imagine the White House chef is also mindful of the uproar over the lavish AIG retreat.

Listen, then get measured for your barrel

This American Life is known, and sometimes mocked for, its stories in which "hipster know-it-alls talk about how fascinating ordinary people are." The show's coverage of the financial tumult of the last six months isn't quite like that- the "hipster know-it-alls" are actually confused and freaked out, and they're talking about how ordinary people got swept up in something that got way out of hand. "The Giant Pool of Money", their show about the subprime mortgage meltdown that first broadcast in May, and "Another Frightening Show About the Economy", last week's aptly-named show about whatever new mess we're in now, are the clearest, most even-handed explanations of what's going on I've come across. Alex Blumberg and Adam Davidson, the reporters who put both shows together, also have a really interesting podcast and blog about the crisis called Planet Money. And the best news in these troubled times? They're all free.