Why Hedge Funds Are Less Risky Than Banks

Alyssa Katz has a very interesting piece about how contrary to the stereotype of Texas as a wild west land of deregulation it actually had a number of strict regulations on mortgage lending that helped avoid a housing bubble. But Felix Salmon says she focused on too narrow a piece of the overall story:

Paul Krugman: Conceder In Chief?: OK, I’ve had my own sorta-kinda briefing on the apparent fiscal cliff deal, and I’m pretty much with Noam Scheiber. Viewed on its own, it’s a bad and upsetting deal but not as terrible as initial rumors had it. But the strategic consequences are likely to be very bad indeed, and in very short order too.

Financial journalist and award-winning author Michael Lewis has a glowing review of John Lanchester's upcoming novel Capital, which will be published in May. 

If you had any doubts of the veracity of former IMF chief economist Simon Johnson’s depiction of the financial crisis as a “quiet coup,” a pre-Christmas release of FBI documents should put them to rest. While I linked to a discussion of the results of the Partnership for Civil Justice’s FOIA of FBI materials on Occupy Wall Street, I was remiss in not writing them up earlier.

What is it about the Financial Times that inspires such longing among billionaires? The salmon-hued daily newspaper, which is owned by London-based publishing and education giant Pearson, is widely considered a must-read on Wall Street and in the upper echelons of the business world. In fact, more so than perhaps any other daily news publication, the FT can lay claim to being the paper of record for so-called “C-suite” executives, a term that refers to a company’s most senior management. Billionaire media mogul Rupert Murdoch reportedly eyed the FT for many years.

Felix Salmon recaps an interesting argument he had with Robert Pozen, author of the new book Too Big to Save: