The era that defined Wall Street is finally, officially over. Michael Lewis, who chronicled its excess in Liar's Poker, returns to his old haunt to figure out what went wrong. To this day, the willingness of a Wall Street investment bank to pay me hundreds of thousands of dollars to dispense investment advice to grownups remains a mystery to me. I was 24 years old, with no experience of, or particular interest in, guessing which stocks and bonds would rise and which would fall. The essential function of Wall Street is to allocate capital-to decide who should get it and who should not. Believe me when I tell you that I hadn't the first clue. I'd never taken an accounting course, never run a business, never even had savings of my own to manage. I stumbled into a job at Salomon ...

For many years, the major four sports, A.K.A. the “Big Four,” in the United States have been football, baseball, basketball and hockey. While other sports have generated large incomes and interest such as boxing and wrestling, the “Big Four” seemed untouchable. The Fight Zone and Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) may change the way the world looks at sports and MMA may sneak into the “Big Four” in the very near future.

MMA is a full contact sport that includes a mix of boxing, wrestling and martial arts. While violent and controversial, the sport has an incredible amount of live and television appeal. While many stadiums and casino-type forms have drawn large crowds for MMA events, television has become the main-stay for this young sport.

The leader in the MMA arena is Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). UFC will likely

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For many years, the major four sports, A.K.A. the “Big Four,” in the United States have been football, baseball, basketball and hockey. While other sports have generated large incomes and interest such as boxing and wrestling, the “Big Four” seemed untouchable. The Fight Zone and Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) may change the way the world looks at sports and MMA may sneak into the “Big Four” in the very near future.

MMA is a full contact sport that includes a mix of boxing, wrestling and martial arts. While violent and controversial, the sport has an incredible amount of live and television appeal. While many stadiums and casino-type forms have drawn large crowds for MMA events, television has become the main-stay for this young sport.

The leader in the MMA arena is Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC). UFC will likely

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Falling oil prices have hurt a lot of investors, even some of the nation’s so-called energy experts. One of the nation’s oil heroes, T. Boone Pickens, has lost billions in 2008.

I am not sure this country should follow the advice of a man that has lost over $2 billion so far this year. But then again, some of the nation’s most powerful men have lost far more than that in just the past few weeks.

If you spend any time watching your living room television set, you have seen T. Boone Pickens discussing his proposed energy plan. The 80-year old has spent over $58 million of his own money to tell the nation it must lose its dependence on foreign oil.

What the white-haired oil barren does not tell you is that his money is not where his mouth his. While Pickens was telling you and I to fund his $100-billion idea,

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by Edward Hugh: Barcelona Keynes, however, once semi-seriously proposed, as an anti-deflationary measure, that the government fill bottles with currency and bury them in mine shafts to be dug up by the public. Ben Bernanke, Deflation: Making Sure "It" Doesn't Happen Here Many of the macro-economic fundamentals of Spain today are very different from those of ten or fifteen years ago...........A lot of factors look better this time around. Compared to its history, Spain has low interest rates, low unemployment and a strong fiscal position........the 2007 levels of government debt, unemployment and interest rates are about half the level of 1993. Equally, a lot of factors related to debt levels, housing and bank funding are worse versus the last downturn. For instance, the relative size of mortgage debt or total private sector debt to GDP, or the size of the construction sector to GDP, were all about 60% bigger in 2007 than in 1993. As was the bank system’s loan-to-deposit ratio. And the housing PE has expanded almost as much. So when Spanish bank management’s argue that the world today is not like the early 1990s, they are right: some things are better, but others are worse. As Mark Twain noted many years ago, history may not repeat itself but it does rhyme. Spanish Banks, How Bad Can It Get? - Citigroup, September 2008 As I suggest in the title, the contents of this post resembles more an online training session about how the recent proposals to refloat and reinforce the Spanish banking sector may work out in practice than a conventional blog post, but still, this is the weekend, and at weekends, as well as all that interminable football, hiking and tapas snacks in bars, people are supposed to enjoy complementary and value-enhancing activites like going on courses, aren't they? So why don't we have a try. But remember, this topic is only for those with the sternest of stomachs, and the greatest of abilities to find - now what was the word Krugman recently used, ah yes, beauty - in that otherwise most arid of landscapes, the world of financial book-keeping. So, as is the custom in all good training sessions, let's all start by watching a video, just to get us in the mood, and into the swing of things as it were. I think after the viewing what follows may be a lot more digestable, and certainly it should be more comprehennsible. (The version is conveniently supplied with substitles in Castellano the benefit of any Spanish speaking readers who might drop by).

by Edward Hugh: BarcelonaWell, Europe's leaders have finally bitten the bullet. Faced with what IMF head Dominique Strauss Kahn warned could turn into a global financial meltdown, our leaders have risen to the challenge, at least to a certain extent. The details of what has been agreed continue to remain vague, but obviously I think it is a good FIRST move. More will now almost inevitably follow, but our reluctant leaders have finally got their feet wet, and the bathing costume is on. Now it is only left for them to dive into the ocean which lies in front.And, of course, the situation was not without its theatricals. Initially billed as a "eurozone only" meet-up, Gordon Brown was ultimately summoned, a move which was not totally essential, but since he was the only one with a real "going plan" on the table, the invitation made sense. ...

Sometimes people will make a mistake in one setting when they would never do so in another.  Try these two statements about this weekend's football games.  Both are true. The Cowboys have never beaten the Packers at Lambeau Field.  What information does that provide about tonight's game?  Does it establish a trend?  (The actual record is 4-0.  The Cowboys won once when the Pack played some games at Milwaukee County Stadium, but that does not count).  Should you play against this trend, figuring that the Cowboys are "due?" We got a note from a friend who informed us that his "service" was really hot last week.  Should we follow the choices for this week, expecting the hot hand to continue? Investment Implications Our guess is that most readers would get the football questions right.  So why is it that so many of these same people ...

Under Armour, Inc. (UA), based in College Park, Maryland, was founded in 1996 by former University of Maryland football player Kevin Plank. The company is the originator of performance apparel engineered to keep athletes cool, dry and light throughout the course of a game, practice or workout. With retailers across the U.S., Canada, the U.K., Ireland and Australia, the company offers a diverse assortment of apparel for men, women and youth.

The company recently announced that it will become the exclusive official outfitter of The University of Maryland (UM) Department of Athletics effective January 1, 2009. The five-year, $17.5M agreement gives Under Armour the right to provide uniforms, apparel and footwear to each of the Terps’ 27 varsity sports, including football, men’s and women’s basketball, lacrosse and soccer. The company previously signed apparel partnerships with UM’s football, men’s soccer, and men’s lacrosse teams.

The department-wide outfitter agreement includes

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Understanding Counter Party Risk As we write this, CNBC is reporting that Lehman Brothers, Inc. (LEH) has a notional amount of outstanding OTC positions of nearly $800 billion.  Since Lehman is going into bankruptcy, what does that mean for the rest of the financial markets? Each of these trades has a counter party, an institution that is expecting to pay off or get paid according to the terms of the agreement. Explaining Counter Parties Let us start with an example that everyone can understand.  Suppose that you occasionally make a  football bet (completely illegal) with an online sports betting service or a local provider of such services.  Since you are a recreational player, your normal unit is $100, an amount less than tickets to a local sports event.  If you lose, you have to sacrifice some fun.  If you win, you can ...

With global financial markets in a seeming free-fall, investors need to take their minds off the week( or the 10 months) that was and focus on what is very important. What could be more important than investing, you might ask? The answer is, of course, football. Yes, it’s that time of year again, where each team is 0-0 and fans can still hope of a trip to the Super Bowl. Each team starts off with a clean slate. It goes without saying that the Seattle Seahawks, might as well book a ticket already, ’cause there is no stopping them!

For the women or ‘football widows’ out there, there is a great post over at Bizzywomen.com, giving some tips on how to keep occupied while your husband plunks himself down in front of the TV for an entire day. It’s an entertaining read!

Go Seahawks, and since we don’t want Zack”All-city running

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