Search
All times are London time
Most Popular Posts
- Macquarie: The 'great unwind' is coming
- The €5.5 trillion unwind
- Further reading
- Britain's top export - drunks
- Further reading
- Turning Japanese? UK house prices
- Lehman's 'mea culpa' letter
- Further reading
- Preachin' the GDP good news since '78
- Lunch Wrap
- Show more...
- Show less...
Blogs we're reading
- 1440 Wall Street
- Abnormal Returns
- Alea
- All About Alpha
- Arbitrage View
- Bespoke Investment Group
- Big Picture
- Brad Setser: Follow the money
- Bronte Capital
- Calculated Risk
- Capital Chronicle
- Capitalist Resistance
- Credit Writedowns
- Crossing Wall Street
- Deal Journal
- Dealbook
- Dealbreaker
- Deus Ex Macchiato
- Felix Salmon
- Financial Armageddon
- Financial Crookery
- Fintag
- Free Exchange
- Infectious Greed
- Information Arbritrage
- Intelligent Mergers
- Interactive Investor
- Jeff Matthews
- Marketbeat
- Naked Capitalism
- Naked Shorts
- Nouriel Roubini
- Paul Wilmott
- Practical Risk Management
- Random Roger
- Reuters DealZone
- Robert Peston
- Short Stories
- Sudden Debt
- The Aleph blog
- The Epicurean Dealmaker
- The Oil Drum
- The price of everything
- Ultimi Barbarorum
- Wallstrip
Classified Jobs
- Director of Finance and Corporate Services
- Recruiter: NSPCC
- Newly Qualified Accountants
- Recruiter: Ernst & Young
- Head of Operational Rigour
- Recruiter: Barclaycard International
- Financial Controller – British Gas Business (ACA, ACCA, CIMA, CPA)
- Recruiter: British Gas Business
- Head of Customer Service - Savings
- Recruiter: Nationwide Building Society
- Corporate Tax Manager
- Recruiter: New Look
- Business Analyst
- Recruiter: Credit Suisse
- CFO/Finance Director
- Recruiter: AMS Baeshen & Co
Site Navigation
Principal content
Sixteen of the biggest, fattest porkies
Of course there are zillions more equally juicy lies floating around out there, but we reckon Peter Tasker, a Tokyo-based analyst and occasional author, has come up with some choice specimens - and just in time for a lighthearted, two-minute Easter read:
The top 16 big, fat lies de nos jours
1. Derivatives reduce volatility
2. The BRIC economies are decoupling
3. Inflation is 2 per cent
4. Greenspan was a maestro
5. The Chinese won’t let their market fall in Olympics year
6. (Junichiro) Koizumi reformed Japan
7. The Americans are devoted to free market solutions
8. The Swiss are prudent
9. The French are brilliant derivatives traders
10. The UK is suffering a housing shortage
11. Private equity funds add value to the companies they buy
12. The cap rate for real estate should be the government bond yield
13. Alastair Darling is in charge of the situation
14. Ben Bernanke is in charge of the situation 1
5. The G8 is in charge of the situation
16. Anyone is in charge of the situation
- Advertise with the FT
- Press enquiries
- Student offers
- FT Conferences
- FT Research Centre
- Corporate subscriptions
- FT Group
- Partner sites: Chinese FT.com
- Les Echos
- FT Deutschland
- Expansion
- © Copyright The Financial Times Ltd 2007. "FT" and "Financial Times" are trademarks of The Financial Times Ltd. Privacy policy
- Terms
[…] Ezra Pound said “The less we know, the longer our explanations.” What about the inverse (Gwen Robinson, “Sixteen of the biggest, fattest porkies,” FT’s Alphaville blog, March 20, 2008)? Of course there are zillions more equally juicy lies floating around out there, but we reckon Peter Tasker, a Tokyo-based analyst and occasional author, has come up with some choice specimens - and just in time for a lighthearted, two-minute Easter read: The top 16 big, fat lies de nos jours […]
Here are some alternative porkies :
1 Gordon Brown has run the economy prudently.
2 The credit crunch was caused by sub-prime lending in America.
3 The credit crunch will not spread to the real economy.
4 The banking system has been lending responsibly.
5 The authorities have been watchful, understand the problems and will continue to take prompt, appropriate and timely action.
6 World asset values will not fall significantly.
7 The world banking system will be able to adjust to the reduced asset values that world debt is secured against.
8 This is a temporary adjustment, before normality resumes.
9 America’s position in the world will not be affected.
10 China will co-operate to maintain the status quo so that Western profligacy can continue.
11 Economic power, then political power and then military supremacy will remain in the West.
12 The Western way of life is not under threat and Western capitalism, democracy and aspirations will spread throughout the Middle East, China, Russia, Africa, South America, etc.
13 All these fundamental truths are understood by George Bush. People who think differently do not have George’s depth of understanding.
14 The greatest philosophical truths emanate from Texas.
Here’s another of his dicta -
“Remember the only two investment principles that matter - what is, isn’t. What isn’t, is. Master this knowledge and no market can defeat you. Listen to the cry of the reptile deep within you. ”
Sortof David carradine meets David Icke.
[…] http://ftalphaville.ft.com/blog/2008/03/20/11751/sixteen-of-the-biggest-fattest-porkies/ […]
Excellent. How about:
17. You can make £100m spreading rumours on HBOS