Andy Kessler

WSJ: Lessons from a Dow Decade

2010-03-10T08:32:27-08:00

A year ago yesterday, the world almost ended. The stock market was in free fall, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average bottoming out at 6547, down from its Oct. 9, 2007 peak of 14164. Financials were in a death spiral...

WSJ: Bernanke's Exit Strategy

2010-02-04T10:27:10-08:00

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703699204575017462822204340.html We can end bank panics forever by limiting the ability of lenders to create money out of thin air. Last week, voting 70-30, the Senate confirmed Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke for another four year term. So now what...

WSJ: Put Down That Shovel!

2009-12-26T02:08:00-08:00

Forget old-fashioned infrastructure. Here are six government projects to foster a lasting economic recovery. The House has passed a $154 billion jobs bill, and the administration has announced a plan to spend $50 billion of repaid TARP money to "create"...

WSJ: Galleon and the Trouble With Insider Trading

2009-11-02T10:37:27-08:00

It happened almost every earnings season. Our hedge fund would own a million shares in some company and two weeks before it was to report quarterly earnings, its stock would start dropping. There was no news to explain it. We...

Dow Jones vs. the Monetary Base Chart

2009-10-02T14:14:00-07:00

Updated again: October 30, 2009 (added 2008-2009 chart to 2009 only chart) This chart ran along with The Bernanke Market piece that ran in the Wall Street Journal back in July. I thought it was worth updating. The market seems...

Marketplace Radio: Reform won't change Wall Street pay

2009-09-24T17:50:31-07:00

Marketplace Radio 12:00 minute mark.

WSJ: Bank Pay Controls Aren't the Answer

2009-09-23T01:13:00-07:00

In his weekly radio address on Saturday, President Barack Obama said that "we cannot allow the thirst for reckless schemes that produce quick profits and fat executive bonuses to override the security of our entire financial system and leave taxpayers...

Forbes: Lehman and Meritocracy

2009-09-14T10:05:16-07:00

http://www.forbes.com/2009/09/14/lehman-brothers-goldman-sachs-bankruptcy-anniversary-opinions-contributors-andy-kessler.html Part of the charm of Wall Street, and what scares most reasonable people away, is that it is as close to a meritocracy as exists on this earth. It's dog eat dog. It's sink or swim. You do a...

WSJ: Why AT&T Killed Google Voice

2009-08-18T21:47:04-07:00

Earlier this month, Apple rejected an application for the iPhone called Google Voice. The uproar set off a chain of events—Google's CEO Eric Schmidt resigning from Apple's board, and the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) investigating wireless open access and handset...

Forbes.com - Thankfully, That's Not The Way It Was

2009-07-20T15:20:50-07:00

http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/20/walter-cronkite-obituary-media-opinions-contributors-mediocrity.html I've always had a problem with Walter Cronkite. He had this mind-meld grip on the brain of everyone, including me, who came of age in the 1960s and 1970s, with his subliminal promotion of mediocrity and complacency that kept...

WSJ: The Bernanke Market

2009-07-15T01:55:00-07:00

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124762005061042587.html I remember once buying the stock of a small company and I couldn't believe my luck. Every time my fund bought more shares the stock would go up. So we bought even more and the stock kept climbing. When...

Technology Review: A Pound of Cure

2009-06-23T10:15:00-07:00

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/22852 The federal government is about to spend big on health-care IT. Too bad the medical industry has a vested interest in inefficiency. Technology is once again being touted as a cure-all, this time for what ails the American health-care...

Forbes.com - The Inevitability Of Internet Pirates

2009-06-11T21:57:38-07:00

Pirates are all over the news this year. They were off the coast of Somalia … and now they're in Sweden? In April, a Stockholm court handed down a guilty verdict for "accessory and conspiracy to break copyright law" to...

CNBC: Fast Money - Bull Market or BS?

2009-05-18T15:39:14-07:00

18:00 minute mark...

WSJ: Was It A Sucker's Rally?

2009-05-12T01:46:00-07:00

The Dow Jones Industrial Average has bounced an astounding 30% from its March 9 low of 6547. Is this the dawn of a new era? Are we off to the races again? Only a fool predicts the stock market, so...

Weekly Standard: Putting the Toothpaste Back into the Tube

2009-04-19T02:36:00-07:00

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke needs to spell out how he plans to head off hyperinflation. So how is Fed chairman Ben Bernanke going to get all that toothpaste back into the tube? The Fed has been cranking money out...

WSJ: Have We Seen the Last of the Bear Raids?

2009-03-26T01:02:00-07:00

So is that it? Is the downturn over? After bouncing off of 6500, or more than half its peak value, and with Citigroup briefly breaking $1, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has rallied back more than 1200 points. So, is...

NPR: Zombie Banks

2009-02-17T14:53:33-08:00

NPR Morning Edition February 17, 2009 Click here to play Zombie Banks Feed Off Bailout Money by Chris Arnold “A zombie bank is not quite dead, but it’s certainly not alive and is not doing any good for the economy.”...

WSJ: Why Markets Dissed the Geithner Plan

2009-02-11T01:30:00-08:00

One of the cool things about being Treasury Secretary is that you get your signature on dollar bills, giving them authority, defending their honor. Timothy Geithner's plan to save the struggling banking system probably does the opposite, throwing good money...

Forbes.com - Czemu Bernie, czemu?

2009-02-09T17:28:53-08:00

From the Polish edition of Forbes Magazine, in case you missed it.

Forbes.com - Chicago Cubs Economy

2009-01-21T12:32:24-08:00

The Tribune Company is to announce the buyer of the Chicago Cubs baseball team this week. The short list is Chicago businessman Tom Ricketts, Chicago real estate investor Hersch Klaff and New York private-equity investor Marc Utay, according to a...

WSJ: The End of Citi's Financial Supermarket

2009-01-16T02:09:00-08:00

The great unwind of Citigroup's financial supermarket has begun. In the face of $10 billion in losses in the latest quarter, and with its stock at a 16-year low, Citi struck a deal on Tuesday to effectively sell control of...

Forbes.com - The Bernard Madoff Morality Tale

2008-12-16T13:05:00-08:00

From ''Schlub'' to ''Macher'' to ''Goniff.'' Why, Bernie, why? By all accounts, Bernard Madoff had a successful trading business and was a hitter on Wall Street. Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities was one of the top three market makers in...

WSJ: Ignore the Stock Market (until February)

2008-11-20T02:02:00-08:00

Down in the morning, up in the afternoon. Or is it the other way around? The topsy-turvy stock market is tough to read. In the last year, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has briefly been over 13,000 and below 8,000....

NPR: Navigating Wall Street's Lexicon

2008-11-04T07:00:00-08:00

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=96557570 1:02 mark "The last fund manager or the last set of individuals out in the marketplace, have they given up hope, have they just said, 'you know what, sell everything,' and just en mass, people are puking out stocks,...

WSJ: What Paulson Is Trying to Do

2008-10-15T01:00:00-07:00

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122402984044334627.html Less than two weeks into it, the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) is stuck between a rock and a hard place. Next week, several hundred billion dollars of credit default swap (default insurance) payments on Lehman's debt...

Forbes.com - New Life

2008-10-13T09:28:04-07:00

Thank you, sir, may I have another? As the stock market gets spanked,down 40% in a year and a day, there is a silver lining. We Americans get our lumps out the way, and start a new life. Much has...

New York Magazine: Why Wall Street Will Prevail

2008-10-11T01:00:00-07:00

Why Wall Street Will Prevail Things are bad now, but the world will never out-finance us. http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/51168/ With the stock market tanking and Wall Street’s top firms either vanished or trembling under the skirt of commercial banks, is finance as...

Weekly Standard: What is Wall Street these days, anyway?

2008-10-05T13:38:10-07:00

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/015/654vucfz.asp Before the last of Wall Street gets sold off as day-old fish on Fulton Street or washed into the East River altogether it’s worth asking, what is Wall Street these days anyway? Thanks to Dick Grasso and CNBC, most...

Radio, Radio: NPR and Rush

2008-09-29T10:25:25-07:00

Doesn't get much different than these two radio outlets! NPR Morning Edition September 16, 2008 http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=94658913 Investors Feel the Pain of Lehman Bros. Collapse by Chris Arnold At 2:00 mark: “This happens every cycle and I used to work on...

WSJ: Clean Up Print

2008-09-25T03:00:00-07:00

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB122230704116773989.html In 1992, hedge-fund manager George Soros made $1 billion betting against the British pound. In 2007, John Paulson's Credit Opportunities fund correctly bet against subprime mortgages, clearing $15 billion for the year and $3.7 billion for him. Warren Buffett...

Forbes.com: Lehman = Pan Am

2008-09-15T13:24:56-07:00

Not to sound harsh, but Lehman Brothers reminds me of Pan Am Airlines. No one (well, beyond their employees) is going to miss them. There are plenty of others to take their place. In the '70s and '80s, a deregulated...

Forbes.com: Google's Offensive Strategy

2008-09-03T15:49:26-07:00

Back in 1983 on the hit TV show The A-Team, George Peppard's Hannibal said to Mr. T's Bad Attitude Baracus, "There's an old saying: 'The best defense is a good offense.'" Mr. T replied,"You got that wrong, man. A good...

Tech Ticker: Is It Safe?

2008-06-10T19:33:01-07:00

ABX Indicator Click on ABX-HE-AAA 06-2 for the chart.

WSJ: The War for the Web

2008-05-06T07:11:58-07:00

Microsoft was smart to walk away (for now) from its $44 billion bid for Yahoo. It's never good to overpay. But the software giant – whose stock has flatlined for eight years – was onto the right strategy in looking...

Tech Ticker: The Woz

2008-04-11T08:29:04-07:00

Part 1 - Get Ready for the Woz! Part 2 - Creating the Computer of My Dreams Part 3 - Today's Young Innovators Part 4 - Favorite Gadgets (yes, he packs a laser) Part 5 - Stock jock/news junkie Part...

NYT: QOTD

2008-04-04T10:02:00-07:00

Huh?

Tech Ticker: Working Hard and Playing Hard

2008-03-21T16:14:00-07:00

Carbon Fiber Lifestyle...

NYT: Tough Times for Buyout Lords

2008-03-08T14:42:00-08:00

I don't normally post these, but I couldn't resist. http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/08/business/08mogul.html Tight Credit, Tough Times for Buyout Lords By LANDON THOMAS Jr. Published: March 8, 2008 ... “The crowds are smaller at cocktail parties, the aura is stained, but there still...

Tech Ticker: Why Everyone Works So Hard in Silicon Valley

2008-02-27T17:11:15-08:00

WSJ: Internet Wrecking Ball

2008-02-25T07:29:08-08:00

Imagine a town that has all sorts of gasoline pipelines running by it but only one gas pump. Rationing is inevitable. So are price controls. Everyone gets equal amounts, except of course first responders like police and ambulances, which should...

Tech Ticker: The Game Changer

2008-02-20T08:38:00-08:00

Tech Ticker: Soap Opera

2008-02-11T10:45:32-08:00

Tech Ticker on Yahoo Finance launched today. Enjoy.

WSJ: What's Next for the Banks

2008-01-24T07:38:14-08:00

If you want to know what's going to happen to the big banks and investment banks, you've got to go back to early 2003, when the seeds of destruction were planted. It had been a year or so since a...

I Still Hate Dividends, Professor Siegel

2008-01-07T14:49:22-08:00

Wharton Professor Jeremy Siegel is much revered. His students sing his praise, his books are best sellers, the press adores him. I’ve heard him speak and he is very engaging, even convincing. He is also totally wrong. About dividends. About...

TCS: Cali Cupcake Cops

2007-11-02T08:22:04-07:00

I tried. I really tried. But it took all of a few days with the kids back in school before I ran into the new "policy" that finally pushed me over the edge. Look, school is hard, starting with no...

Weekly Standard: YouTube U.

2007-10-22T08:20:29-07:00

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Content/Public/Articles/000/000/014/250klogu.asp Without much fanfare, college lectures are being put online, for free. MIT lectures can be downloaded from iTunes University, and you can watch Cal professors pontificate on your computer via YouTube. Is this some new trend? Do colleges feel...

Wallstrip Interview

2007-08-15T09:24:00-07:00

WSJ: Blackstone's World of Cash

2007-06-21T08:04:53-07:00

Will the private equity party -- this week's Blackstone IPO is icing on the cake -- end with a bang or a whimper? Let's recall that on Friday, Oct. 13, 1989, the almost $7 billion employee-led buyout of United Airlines...

WSJ: A Future For Newspapers

2007-05-24T06:38:01-07:00

New technology is mucking up the media, and newspapers seem to be taking the brunt of it. Craigslist and eBay took away classified ad sales, direct advertisers are allocating budgets to search engines and circulation is receding faster than Bruce...