I asked the Smart Jews what they thought and came away having to admit that they were indeed very smart. You can think about this trial in two ways, they said. One way is narrow: it’s about ascertaining the technical nature of a business relationship. The other way is broad: it’s about righting the pathological ways in which a particular society has organized itself.
Author: Edouard Chazal
France Is Running Out of Time to Restrain Germany
So, the argument goes: from now on, Germany is only looking out for its national interests and it is not interested in Europe any more.
The Next Round of Derivatives Regulation
The trouble is, derivatives rules are weaker or nonexistent elsewhere, making the call for substituted compliance either a tactic to delay enforcement until the rest of the world updates its regulations or, worse, an attempt to avoid tough regulation altogether.
Beware the Smart Money: Hedge Funds Issue Sell Signal
So, what is the moral here? It may be that hedge fund money — the so-called smart money — is not as smart as it’s cracked up to be. This contrarian indicator is not so different from those that track individual investors. Many market pros like to say when individuals become more bullish or confident, it signals a market top.
Stimulus vs. austerity: Getting it just right
The impending fiscal cliff could disrupt the post-financial-crisis adjustment process and benign pattern of gradual transition in the U.S. economy, however. The cases of Japan in the 1990s, and Spain more recently, demonstrate that if economies are not sufficiently advanced in their private-sector recoveries and deleveraging processes, an excessive emphasis on near-term fiscal austerity may ultimately be counterproductive.
Abnormal Capitalist 