From the monthly archives:

October 2008

Dems v. GOP on investing

by jolyonpatten on October 30, 2008

As of Friday, a $10,000 investment in the S.& P. stock market index* would have grown to $11,733 if invested under Republican presidents only, although that would be $51,211 if we exclude Herbert Hoover’s presidency during the Great Depression. Invested under Democratic presidents only, $10,000 would have grown to $300,671 at a compound rate of [...]

Three elephants

by jolyonpatten on October 29, 2008

There’s a wryly amusing article from Garry Booth over at the Lloyd’s Risk blog on the difficulties facing the market as seen from Baden-Baden. The three elephants in the room to which he refers are: capital market meltdown, falling share prices, and global economic recession. Primary insurers who want to maintain their current business model (ie stay [...]

Woe, woe and thrice woe

by jolyonpatten on October 29, 2008

Just when the financial world is giving us severe grief, it looks like we are going to get bitten by Peak Oil, after all. The International Energy Agency is shortly to publish its annual World Energy Outlook (12 Nov) but the FT has a sneak preview. Basically: without investment, the natural annual rate of output decline is 9.1% even [...]

Empire State blues

by jolyonpatten on October 29, 2008

NY State is in for some hard times, according to its governor, David Paterson. [M]ore than 160,000 New Yorkers will lose their jobs during this downturn and the unemployment rate, now 5.8 percent, will reach 6.5 percent. He said personal income is projected to decline 1 percent in 2009 and wages will drop 2.1 percent. By [...]

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Remnants of Ike

by jolyonpatten on October 21, 2008

Looking down from my hotel on the rooftops of Houston, I can still make out the debris that must have been left behind by Ike. It reminds me of the time that I was in New York about 7-8 weeks after 9/11. We were staying in the Waldorf-Astoria and when I crawled under the table [...]

Twit

by jolyonpatten on October 18, 2008

ReRisk now with added Twitter — see Rapido News items in the side bar over there —>

Managing a recession

by jolyonpatten on October 16, 2008

Amidst all the doom and gloom, the early trains into the City packed with office workers keen to be seen to be keen, the belt-tightening, expense-cutting, travel-slashing and so forth, it’s occasionally worth remembering that there are different perspectives. Here’s Steve Jobs on how Apple chose to get through the last downturn: We’ve had one of these [...]

Banks in trouble shock!

by jolyonpatten on October 16, 2008

I’ve refrained from commenting on the global financial turmoil for the most part, and I know one should really be trying to put words of wisdom together, but frankly it’s all gone so mad that I’m beginning to think the Daily Mash have the right idea: http://www.thedailymash.co.uk/news/business/banks-fucked-20080424901/ Julian Cook, an analyst at Donnelly-McPartlin, said: “Remember [...]