Commission Conundrums
Drew Angerer/Pool via AP
From left, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, at the Capitol, February 3, 2021
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says sheâs determined to set up an independent commission, much like the one that investigated the 9/11 attacks and made recommendations to prevent its recurrence, to investigate the January 6 attack on the Capitol by President Trumpâs supporters. South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham, widely viewed as the congressional Republican whoâs closest to Trumpâhe plans to golf with the former president this weekâhas endorsed the idea of a commission as well.
The Green Bubble
February 13, 2021, 8:24 AM·36 min read
Yes, I am going to talk about bubbles again, but once again about one specific bubble: the bubble in anything (supposedly) green, particularly if it can be tied to the war against climate change.
Like many of the asset-price bubbles of our current moment, this one is not entirely irrational. Not only are green assets being “revalued” (to use a term that implies rather more calculation than is really the case) in the light of the general mispricing of risk that is the product of today’s artificially low interest rates, but, as I have noted before, buying green is supported by some arguments that have little to do with value, but a great deal to do with price.
? What a joke!
Furthermore, everybody understands what happened with GameStop. Unlike some other Wall Street stories, this one isn t complicated. The entire tale, in a nutshell, goes like this.
One group of gamblers announced, Fuck you! Another group announced back: No, fuck YOU!
That s it. Or, as one market analyst put it to me this morning, A bunch of guys made a bet, got killed, then doubled and tripled down and got killed even more.
Regarding improprieties, leaving aside that the Redditors were doing exactly what billion-dollar hedge funds do every day colluding to move a stock for fun and profit the notion that this should be the subject of a federal investigation is preposterous.