MetaFilter posts tagged with bubble

Should Have Stuck to Fishing

KokuRyu — Tue, 05 Jan 2010 20:50:49 -0800

Iceland blocks repayment deal, sparks global outrage. "The Icelandic people are effectively saying that Iceland does not want to be part of the international financial system," Britain's Financial Services Minister Paul Myners said. But the bill equates to £40,000 per family. Britain threatens to freeze Iceland out of EU as loan payback vetoed. The seemingly endless saga of Icesave took a dramatic turn today when the president of Iceland, Olafur Grimsson, refused to sign an agreement to repay £3.4bn to Britain and the Netherlands. Their governments paid out the sum to Icesave account holders after the online bank collapsed in late 2008, and now want Iceland to repay it. - IMF says Icesave not condition of Iceland program. - How Britain failed Icesave customers. - Iceland Should Have Stuck to Fishing

Bubble Nebula

homunculus — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 11:44:13 -0800

Reprocess of Bubble Nebula Data. NGC 7635, also called the Bubble Nebula, is an emission nebula in the constellation Cassiopeia. It's created by stellar winds from a superhot star 40 times the size of our sun which whip the cloud of gas around the star into a bubble. [Via]

The Great American Bubble Machine

philip-random — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 07:32:11 -0800

"The world's most powerful investment bank is a great vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity, relentlessly jamming its blood funnel into anything that smells like money." Matt Taibbi vs Goldman Sachs. “What you need to know is the big picture: If America is circling the drain, Goldman Sachs has found a way to be that drain -- an extremely unfortunate loophole in the system of Western democratic capitalism, which never foresaw that in a society governed passively by free markets and free elections, organized greed always defeats disorganized democracy.” previously.

Zubbles, the Colorful Bubbles

avoision — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 04:44:32 -0800

Finally, finally - Zubbles are available for pre-order! Inventor Tim Kehoe has been searching for the elusive colored bubble for a long time. Through his experimentation he's stained his eyes a deep blue, along with his car, his kitchen, and his bathtub (he's also permanently stained the family dog). But in 2005, after 11 years and over $500,000 in funding, Kehoe successfully created a colored bubble that wouldn't stain. His invention, Zubbles, was given the "Best of What's New, Grand Award" from Popular Science. Yesterday, after an additional four years of refining the production process (and meeting with all manner of attorneys, scientists, and Fortune 100 companies)... Zubbles officially became available for pre-order. Popular Science posted a follow-up article, which includes some video. News of its availability is undoubtedly making many kids happy, and making many adults... as happy as kids. [previously]

Beanie Madoffs

Horace Rumpole — Fri, 15 May 2009 11:00:04 -0800

Revisit the Beanie Baby Bubble with Les & Sue Fox's 1998 bestseller The Beanie Baby Handbook. [via]

How Lehman Brothers Got Its Real Estate Fix

SeizeTheDay — Sun, 03 May 2009 06:15:21 -0800

How Lehman Brothers Got Its Real Estate Fix. A great article in the NYTimes describes some of the details of commercial real estate lending in its heyday, with a focus on one of Lehman's biggest dealmakers.

Dolphins caught on film making art and doing science.

Toekneesan — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 15:51:07 -0800

Dolphins at SeaWorld Orlando make and play with bubble rings. Others learn by watching. (SLYP) via Checkout the related videos on the right to see other examples of this behavior.

". . . I'm Jim the Realtor"

troy — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 22:40:56 -0800

Jim the Realtor makes sardonic videos documenting his work . . . my favorites . . . Do Repairs, Then Sell High on the Hill Million Dollars Off! Old La Costa REO 'Abomination' Aviara Carlsbad REO Vista, CA bank-owned house Bank-owned house in North Oceanside

The high cost of Lisa's tiger-repellant rock

orthogonality — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 04:09:17 -0800

Leaving office, President Bush claimed "that he took 'a deliberate and comprehensive approach' to preventing terrorism that combined military action overseas with strong defensive measures at home."

[As early as 2002] "We knew that the mortgage-brokerage industry was corrupt... Where we would have gotten a sense of what was really going on was the point where the mortgage was sold knowing that it was a piece of dung and it would be turned into a security. But the agents with the expertise had been diverted to counterterrorism."
[. . . . FBI Director Robert] "Mueller actually circumvented the Justice Department and the OMB to get resources. But he was shut down" by the [Bush A]dministration. [. . . . Testifying in October 2004, ] Chris Swecker, then assistant director of the criminal investigation division said ... "The potential impact of mortgage fraud on financial institutions in the stock market is clear. If fraudulent practices become systemic within the mortgage industry and mortgage fraud is allowed to become unrestrained, it will ultimately place financial institutions at risk and have adverse effects on the stock market."

I don't mean to burst your bubble, but...wait, I guess I do.

schyler523 — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 14:27:26 -0800

Sunday Afternoon Flash Fun/Metafilter Convalescence Flash Fun: BubbleQuod. You have lived your entire life in a bubble. Now you want out. Burst your bubble.

Ladies And Gentlemen… Dow 25,000!

Yakuman — Sat, 10 Jan 2009 12:14:33 -0800

Ladies And Gentlemen… Dow 25,000! A few years ago, some financial wizards thought the good times would go on and on and on. The mega-market could bring Dow 30,000 or Dow 36,000. Maybe the real estate boom will not bust.

The Grand Experiment

troy — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 17:01:31 -0800

History Repeats Itself in Different Hues -- a readable Q&A data dump comparing the economics and policy responses of 1990s Japan and current events

"...market fundamentalism for the last 25 or so years. And now that world is collapsing... "

[expletive deleted] — Sat, 11 Oct 2008 17:24:00 -0800

Bill Moyers interviews George Soros on the financial crisis. Soros discusses market fundamentalism and the causes of the current crisis, as well as what can be done, and how this meltdown will change the global economy. (via The Big Picture) It begins with Moyers violating the behavioral norms of modern journalism:

In the interest of full disclosure, you should know that I served three years on the board of George Soros' foundation, the Open Society Institute, dealing with such issues as a free press, the rule of law, and human rights. But I've had no involvement in his political activities and nothing to do, with his business interests unfortunately.

Crap - I only made $15B last year

blahblah — Fri, 26 Sep 2008 10:16:53 -0800

There are still some smart people left on Wall St. Hedge fund manager, John Paulson, made a cool $15B for his fund as the housing market imploded. His cut? $3-4B. Not too shabby for a year's worth of work. Interestingly, Greenspan was an advisor to the hedge fund. How much did he make out in the housing decline?

The Next Bubble

stavrosthewonderchicken — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 20:28:53 -0800

The Next Bubble: Priming the markets for tomorrow's big crash. A layman's primer on the genesis and future of today's economic troubles, at Harper's Magazine.

Subprime Artistry

afx114 — Sun, 17 Feb 2008 11:00:14 -0800

The Subprime Primer. [via] An entertaining, lo-fi, comic-book style explanation of the complex Subprime Mortgage mess.

Won't You Blog About This Song? Sure!

wendell — Tue, 04 Dec 2007 22:01:23 -0800

"Here Comes Another Bubble" a very 2.0-savvy song parody with a 'catch all the in-jokes' video. It made Diet Coke come out of Scoble's nose! (You don't need to know who Scoble is to appreciate it, but it helps) But you gotta appreciate a riff on "We Didn't Start the Fire" that is not just a laundry-list lyric. From the San Fran-based Richter Scales, an a capella group whose first CD is titled "We Hate A Capella", but mostly from a guy named Matt H...empey. More of their original songs here, the best (IMWO) is "Stockholm Syndrome".

So, it wasn't the Happiest Town on Earth?

amberglow — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 16:54:55 -0800

Remember the Town Disney Built? -- 50% of the homes in Celebration, Florida are up for sale. A failure of corporate-owned and -planned Community™? or just a fallout of the bursting of the housing bubble? And whither New Urbanism? Celebration's Front Porch (home page) a neo-traditional architectural view: The Celebration Controversies

Minsky Meltdown ahead?

umop-apisdn — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 08:56:28 -0800

Minsky Meltdown ahead? Named after Hyman Minsky, an economist who was known for his research concerning financial crises, specifically asset bubbles based on credit cycles. [much more inside]

Countrywide Empties Out on Widowmaker

Adamchik — Thu, 16 Aug 2007 11:46:07 -0800

Countrywide Empties Out on Widowmaker gives a vivid idea of the turmoil in the mortgage market, and the difficult American real estate environment. "You sold your unlimited subway card after the 5th race, plunged full-bore on a filthy hot dog, a beer and a 9-1 shot that finished next-to-last. You are Countrywide."

Bursting the (bubble boy's) Bubble

Burhanistan — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 23:00:24 -0800

Bursting the Bubble - an alternate look at the life of the so-called "bubble boy" David Vetter.

A world of Casey Serins

Asparagirl — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 17:13:46 -0800

What's the link between:
1) the quickly-growing number of American homeowners becoming unable to pay their mortgages after their ARM's reset (a trend nicknamed "ARMageddon" -- applicable in the UK too), which is translating into soaring foreclosure rates, and in turn forcing at least 60 US semi-shady mortgage brokers to go belly-up in the past year (i.e. the "subprime meltdown"), and...
2) the recent implosion and impending financial bailout -- which may become the biggest since the Long Term Capital Management fiasco of 1998 -- of two Bear Stearns hedge funds which dealt in mortgage securities? [more inside]

Come on ride the train...

afx114 — Tue, 03 Apr 2007 09:48:15 -0800

BubbleFilter: Real Estate Roller Coaster. [via] US Home prices adjusted for inflation plotted as a first-person ride on a roller coaster. Keep your eye on the bottom right-hand corner for the corresponding year. Don't worry about the dramatic ending. I mean really, how bad could bad get?

Please, bubble, don't burst until we IPO! Please?

gen — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 23:56:34 -0800

Bubbleprice.com is the handy guide for Internet startup entrepreneurs to use to calculate their next investment round. If you've recently raised money for your startup, how do you plan to use it? If you're working for a startup, better hope Matt Marshall doesn't tag you with the dreaded bubble tag.

In other news, tulip futures were unchanged

Horace Rumpole — Sat, 30 Dec 2006 07:11:35 -0800

The Decline of the PS3 Grey Market: Purchases by eBay arbitrageurs were one of the primary drivers of the Playstation 3 release date frenzy. Predictably, the bubble has now burst.