Here's an interesting observation; the big European banks blend investment banking and commercial banking, while the US banks were banned from the investment banking side until recently and had to keep the two functions walled off after things were relaxed in the last few decades. That leaves the big foreign banks liable for big losses if things go wrong.
UBS, who has Phil Gramm on the payroll, got burned to the tune of $2b by a "rouge trader" making bad stock trades. A few thoughts come to mind
(1) A $2B hit only means a bad third quarter. That's how big UBS is; if not too big to fail, at least too big for one bad set of trades to do it in. The Greek mess might test that, but not one bad trader.
(2) Had the rouge trader made $2B for UBS, would we have heard about it? Probably not; if you make money, you're a maverick, not a rogue.
(3) The trader in question looks like he could play the Eddie Murphy part in Trading Places.
_________________
Here's an interesting piece on bottled water; it seems that a lot of places are now adding bottle-filling "hydration stations" alongside water fountains for the BYOPB crowd. One school covered by USA Today, St. Benedict's in MN, has gone as far as to stop selling bottled water on campus to encourage the more frugal and greener approach.
Of course, we have to have the College Republicans playing the libertarian foil; nothing quite says sophomoric quite like those folks. If you like your store-bought bottled water, stick it in your backpack before coming to campus. Or do like other good red-blooded American conservatives do- drink pop.
________________
The NBA talks are starting to get interesting. As we get close to the point where the season will be put into question, it seems like the pattern we saw with the NFL coming into play, where people get away from their rigid proposals and start meeting in the middle somewhere.
Comments