EUROPE’S ENERGY CRISIS IS KEEPING ENERGY PRICES AND INFLATION HIGH

America leads the world in oil and gas production. We believe midstream energy infrastructure offers predictable cash flows to investors..

Why Gold Miners Can Outperform the S&P500

Towards the end of last year we felt there was an interesting opportunity to be long equities hedged with a short position in the Euro. Our thinking was that equities were attractively priced as long as a crisis was averted, and most of the bad things we could imagine would either begin in Europe (i.e. […]

The Strange Effect of Negative Interest Rates

Interesting piece from NY Fed on negative interest rates and the possible behavioral changes they would cause. If banks were charged for leaving deposits with the Fed, they would in turn charge customers for holding balances. It could cause all kinds of odd outcomes; naturally individuals would hold much more cash, but for corporations and […]

MANU makes FB Look Cheap

I hadn’t got involved in the recent flotation of Manchester United (MANU), perhaps Britain’s best-known brand of (English) football club. Not just because I’m an Arsenal fan either, but because investments in sports franchises can often be a case of heart ruling head and the Glazers (current owners) were unlikely to be selling cheap. But […]

AIMA's Weak Arguments Draw Unfavorable Scrutiny

A few weeks ago the London-based Alternative Investment Management Association (AIMA) issued a “comprehensive rebuttal” of my book, The Hedge Fund Mirage. AIMA’s mission is to promote the hedge fund industry, so one might anticipate a breathless endorsement of their paymasters, and in this they did not disappoint.   I didn’t bother commenting on their […]

Greece Borrows from Prof. Shiller

A little known element of the Greek bond restructuring of several months back was the granting of warrants whose coupons were linked to Greece’s GDP. Maybe this was inspired by Professor Shiller’s suggestion (most recently in his book, “Finance and the Good Society”) in which he proposed that the U.S. issue “Trills”, securities whose coupons would […]