Linkfest: Subprime comeback; Hedge funds attract record assets amid poor returns; Russian elites fear Ukraine fallout

Categories: Linkfest

Today’s most shared:

  • Lending money to people who can’t afford to repay is still profitable for some.
  • Hedge funds gather record assets, deliver puny returns in 2014.
  • Russian oligarchs fear financial fallout if West-integrated economy turns into a pariah, but say little, since opportunity to own Premier League teams is subject to Vladimir Putin’s favor.
  • Banking investor: regulation is crippling banks’ ability to attract investors.
  • Paradoxically, income inequality falls globally, even as it rises in most individual economies.
  • Goldman Sachs and “possibly the most stupidly complicated financial transaction ever sold”.
  • California’s economy performs well despite income tax increases. As economy recovers, rates stay low, and credit improves, doomsayers look wrong for now, on state and Federal level.

In a Subprime Bubble for Used Cars, Borrowers Pay Sky-High Rates
New York Times
Millions of Americans are receiving auto loans they cannot possibly afford, in a lending climate marked by some of the same lack of caution seen in the housing industry before its 2008 implosion.
shared by @TFMkts, @BarbarianCap, @kairyssdal, @moorehn, @mccarthyryanj
 
Hedge Funds Notch Another Milestone
Wall Street Journal
The hedge-fund industry oversaw a record $2.8 trillion in assets at the end of the second quarter, according to industry tracker HFR Inc.
shared by @finansakrobat, @cate_long, @munilass
 
Hedge funds braced for some of their worst returns since 2008
Financial Times
Hedge fund managers expect to deliver some of their worst returns since the financial crisis this year, amid rising concerns over stretched equity market valuations and signs of rising geopolitical tension.
shared by @GTCost, @hedge_funds, @FGoria
 
Russian Billionaires ‘in Horror’ as Putin Risks Isolation
Bloomberg
Russia’s richest businessmen are increasingly frantic that President Vladimir Putin’s policies in Ukraine will lead to crippling sanctions and are too scared of reprisal to say so publicly, billionaires and analysts said.
shared by @NickTimiraos, @paulmasonnews, Crossing Wall Street
 
J Christopher Flowers warns of banking crisis
Financial Times
One of the biggest private equity investors in the banking sector has warned that regulation has depressed profitability so much that lenders will struggle to attract sufficient investors to survive the next financial crisis.
shared by @economistmeg, Naked Capitalism, @retheauditors, @DavidSchawel, @mccarthyryanj
 
Carlos Slim calls for a three-day working week
Financial Times
We’ve got it all wrong, says Carlos Slim, the Mexican telecoms tycoon and world’s second-richest man: we should be working only three days a week.
shared by @TheStalwart, @MichaelKitces, Huffington Post, @FGoria
 
Alibaba’s I.P.O. Could Be a Bonanza for the Scions of Chinese Leaders
New York Times
An intricate web of shell companies disclosed in filings by Alibaba connects the company to the sons and grandsons of the most powerful men in China.
shared by @MParekh, @prchovanec, @larsonchristina, @niubi, @lucymarcus, @MalcolmMoore
 
Income Inequality Is Not Rising Globally. It’s Falling.
New York Times
Though the income gap has widened in many individual nations, it has been shrinking globally for most of the last 20 years.
shared by @ModeledBehavior, Free Exchange, Marginal Revolution
 
How London bankers at Goldman Sachs and Nomura made millions from taxpayers
The Independent
If you can’t spot the sucker at the poker table, better fold fast: the sucker is you. Goldman Sachs and a Portugal state-owned transportation operator made “possibly the most stupidly complicated financial transaction ever sold.”
shared by @matt_levine, @davidenrich, @M_C_Klein, @LaurenLaCapra, @carney
 
California’s job growth defies predictions after tax increases
sacbee.com
These results may surprise those who have heard that tax increases are job killers.
shared by @newsycombinator, @MarkThoma, @Noahpinion, @TheArmoTrader
 
So whatever happened to the deficit?
Washington Post
The budget deficit was of great moment just a few years ago. Now? Not so much.
shared by Abnormal Returns, @ReformedBroker, reddit/Economics, @morningmoneyben
 

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