Didn’t Iceland take the medicine in 2008 and let the banks fail? Wonder how they’re doing? Funny about the car window thing - was just talking with my dad recalling in the 80s how people used to put signs in their car ‘no radio’ to try to avoid such break-ins (NY area). You’re right - history repeats. But what are the crooks stealing now? Surely not car radios?
Ridicule and laughter is a potent weapon against these bastards. Please don't stop.
I was fortunate to be able to read actual hard copies of The Onion (in Madison, WI) in the 80s. Still have several copies stored somewhere.
One of my all-time favorites (from the online version):
"Humanity Surprised It Still Hasn’t Figured Out Better Alternative To Letting Power-Hungry Assholes Decide Everything" will, sadly, probably always be relevant.
Yet another outstanding compilation and portrayal of out times. Particularly the Goethe quote. There should be an annual award, but sooo many deserving candidates. Maybe a monthly. And some months list the runners up. This post contains the names of numerous past winners, unidentified at the time who still deserve to be recognized. And some merit lifetime achievement awards…
Please excuse this naive question from a subscriber. I read on Bloomberg (or somewhere) that Schwab has "Unrealized losses on a balance sheet loaded with long-dated bonds ballooned to more than $29 billion last year."
I vaguely understand how bond prices can fluctuate with interest rates, but what I don't understand is how you can have losses on bonds. Aren't bonds basically where someone pays you for loaning them money for some period of time? So you get interest on the loan you made, plus you get all the money you lent returned to you when the bond matures. Losses on long-dated bonds is also ostensibly what tanked SVB? Although in a recent Rudy post there was a great quote along the lines of "SVB was basically managed by monkeys" :)
I guess what I don't understand is how you can have "unrealized losses" on something that 1) you know what it cost to buy it, 2) it pays you interest while you hold it, and 3) you get your full purchase price returned to you when it matures. Unless, I suppose, you wanted to sell it and buy a new bond that pays a better rate or something? Or maybe it's because the bonds you hold pay less interest than the current going rate, therefore you are losing money relative to what you could be earning at current rates?
Anyway, if someone can "explain like I'm 5" how you can lose money on long-dated bonds I would be very appreciative and happy to learn how this works. Thank you!
Two pointless comments:
One of my favorite novels, The Tenured Professor, was written by John Kenneth Galbraith.
I'm old enough to know that the Sticky Fingers album has an actual zipper on the cover.
Didn’t Iceland take the medicine in 2008 and let the banks fail? Wonder how they’re doing? Funny about the car window thing - was just talking with my dad recalling in the 80s how people used to put signs in their car ‘no radio’ to try to avoid such break-ins (NY area). You’re right - history repeats. But what are the crooks stealing now? Surely not car radios?
Ridicule and laughter is a potent weapon against these bastards. Please don't stop.
I was fortunate to be able to read actual hard copies of The Onion (in Madison, WI) in the 80s. Still have several copies stored somewhere.
One of my all-time favorites (from the online version):
"Humanity Surprised It Still Hasn’t Figured Out Better Alternative To Letting Power-Hungry Assholes Decide Everything" will, sadly, probably always be relevant.
Oh well. At least we can still laugh.
Yet another outstanding compilation and portrayal of out times. Particularly the Goethe quote. There should be an annual award, but sooo many deserving candidates. Maybe a monthly. And some months list the runners up. This post contains the names of numerous past winners, unidentified at the time who still deserve to be recognized. And some merit lifetime achievement awards…
Please excuse this naive question from a subscriber. I read on Bloomberg (or somewhere) that Schwab has "Unrealized losses on a balance sheet loaded with long-dated bonds ballooned to more than $29 billion last year."
I vaguely understand how bond prices can fluctuate with interest rates, but what I don't understand is how you can have losses on bonds. Aren't bonds basically where someone pays you for loaning them money for some period of time? So you get interest on the loan you made, plus you get all the money you lent returned to you when the bond matures. Losses on long-dated bonds is also ostensibly what tanked SVB? Although in a recent Rudy post there was a great quote along the lines of "SVB was basically managed by monkeys" :)
I guess what I don't understand is how you can have "unrealized losses" on something that 1) you know what it cost to buy it, 2) it pays you interest while you hold it, and 3) you get your full purchase price returned to you when it matures. Unless, I suppose, you wanted to sell it and buy a new bond that pays a better rate or something? Or maybe it's because the bonds you hold pay less interest than the current going rate, therefore you are losing money relative to what you could be earning at current rates?
Anyway, if someone can "explain like I'm 5" how you can lose money on long-dated bonds I would be very appreciative and happy to learn how this works. Thank you!
Are we still pretending it was a coincidence that Rudy was banned from Twitter right before all this started?