Exposure to Ice

[koganbot]

Krugman recommends Across The Curve, a blog by bond trader John Jansen (though Krugman himself has to look up some of the words, he says).

someone else mentioned to me that the debacle in Iceland might have implications in Scandinavia. The logic is that some of the big Scandinavian banks probably have large exposure to the Icelandic banks. It would not be a surprise to observe one of the Scandinavian banks emerge with more exposure to Iceland than anticipated.

In this environment, the market would punish that behavior severely.

By the way, my flist being strangely silent about this once-in-a-lifetime* financial crisis, is ILE having good convos on the subject? I haven't checked yet. (I mean, good for its attempt at economic thought, not just good if you're interested in the sociology of ILE.) In general, where are you guys going for conversation about the crisis?

*Or at least first-in-my-lifetime big-size financial panic.

Comments

[carsmilesteve.livejournal.com]

the pub, obv ;)

eff the scando banks, my local council (and loads more around the uk) had stacks of money in iceland banks that we may have to GO AND ACTUALLY CONQUER iceland to get back...

...serve the bvggers right for nicking all our cod...

just looking at this graph gives me the screaming ab dabs and want to bury my head in the sand and forget aaaaaaaall about it...

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

wheeee down down down we go. looking at those graphs actually makes me a bit light-headed.

I think RUSSIA has effectively conquered Iceland now!

[koganbot]

Seems as if Russia may not be rich enough to conquer Iceland after all, so the IMF will have to come charging in. (Iceland's biggest fear is that it will turn out too insignificant to conquer. But the world being what it is, no one and nothing is insignificant. Hurray, globalization.)

[alexmacpherson.livejournal.com]

I'm not going anywhere for conversation because I seem to have this total inability to understand basic economics, so a great deal of it - even in dumbed-down reports - goes over my head. I'm following coverage generally, inc on ILE, which is fine as long as you make judicious use of the scrolldown button. I'm not worried, really? I'm more excited - it's like, hold on to your hats, we're about to have ringside seats for a really fascinating period of global history.

I would really like to read an interview with one of the fuckers responsible for the insanely complicated financial instruments/batshit lending policies though...the lack of accountability is crazy. I haven't seen ANYONE responsible for this explain themselves yet.

Effects of financial crisis upon my friendslist:

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

#1: Dudes posting stupid photoshopped pictures of anything vaguely money related or humourously pointing that the UK is vaguely accusing Iceland of terrorism
#2: A sizeable handful of dudes going 'yikes loads of redundancies round our way but I seem to be ok phew'
#3: A v.small handful of dudes who work in banks appear to be sitting back and watching stuff happen whilst laughing nervously.

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

I'm trying - and failing largely - to stay away from crisis talk as it's not doing my nerves a lot of good! ILX is mostly spectating rather than discussing, but the threads on the crisis seem generally idiot-free though not very enlightening.

[koganbot]

Well, if things turn out reasonably well, it looks like your Gordon Brown will have been one of the chief heroes. So will have Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd, who was born in Willimantic, eight miles south of where I grew up (though born 10 years before I was).

[freakytigger.livejournal.com]

Thing is, if he's recognised as a hero at all (and "repentasnt sinner who does the right thing in the end" would be the story I guess) it might be too late for him - the UK will end up in a nasty recession whatever and it won't be over by 2010, which is the latest he can call an election. So "reasonably well" probably won't be enough to save him electorally.

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

maybe cod war 2 will be his falklands :\

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

annoyingly i have the usual self-inflicted perfect storm of deadlines -- these included my holiday in morocco in two weeks time until fiscal caution got the better of me (do i really want to be stranded in a country i don't speak the language of when sterling falls to 0 against all currencies): i have postponed morocco till next year

also i felt a bit contrite abt my drive-by style of posting to frank's earleir threads -- viz not reading the piece he was linking to (no time), but linking to five other longer and much more controversial pieces him (which i also hadn't read properly)

My busy day

[koganbot]

Actually, I have loads of things to do today myself:

(1) Trim beard so that I will not look like hairy monster tonight at writers group.
(2) Put CD for Chuck in envelope and address envelope.
(3) Go to post office to get mail and send CD to Chuck.
(4) Go to Kmart and buy shoes that will not leak during possible rainstorm over the weekend. Buy socks while I'm at it.
(5) Go to Albertsons and buy bread.
(6) Return home, read some Descartes, and send email to fellow philosophy students on best procedure (superior to that of piker René) for going about doubting everything one possibly can, including doubting one's preconceptions about what doubt is (possibly post results on lj).
(7) Think about horses for first time in years so that I can say I put Descartes before da horse.
(8) Think about prostitutes for first time in years so that I can say I put Descartes before da whores.
(9) Listen to new charting singles and post Year In America for this week.
(10) Mull over possibility of getting in touch with LVW and pitching pieces.
(11) On way to writers group, go to bank and get new transaction register for checkbook.
(12) Go to writers group.
(13) Get offline. (Um, for this step to be effective, it needs to be number 1, not number 11.)

Re: My busy day

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

unfogged sometimes has good threads on the subject (they're very distractable: but not and then they discuss high-end stuff pretty well i think)

Re: My busy day

[dubdobdee.livejournal.com]

however some of the best unfogged comments threads are hidden behind titles and initial posts that are -- to say the least -- impenetrable to non-unfogged outsiders so you have to click around and be patient, and it's a VERY in-crowd crowd

i post (very occasionally) as tierce de loll4rdie

[http://users.livejournal.com/xyzzzz__/]

Normally silent on most things haw haw but the level of complexity attained by the financial market system mirrors the level of complexity attained by classical music. In the latter you can grab a piece of clarity at times, but here...sometimes the only thing is to watch it unfold.

Post no.9 on this classical board (made by someone grappling with the issues form the legal perspective) gives a fairly lucid account

http://musicandsociety.myforum365.com/index.php?topic=572.0

[koganbot]

Thanks! That is a good account.