NetNet With John Carney

Wednesday, 6 Oct 2010 | 2:03 PM ET

Hugh Hendry's Guide To Shorting China

Posted By: John Carney

Over the summer, money managers turned markedly bullish on China .

Kick Images | Photodisc | Getty Images

Flag of the People's Republic of China

Only a handful of hedge fund managers have put money to work shorting China.

It's tough to short China. Foreigners are barred from directly investing in Chinese companies. Shorting Chinese stocks, even for Chinese natives, is tricky. China only began allowing short selling this year. So China bears have to get creative to short markets there.

Most notable among the China shorts is Kynikos Associates founder Jim Chanos and Eclectica Asset Management founder Hugh Hendry. Chanos has been warning about excessive credit in China and the potential for a disruption in the housing market to spread to China's broader economy.

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Wednesday, 6 Oct 2010 | 1:13 PM ET

David Stockman: I Invest In Anything Bernanke Can't Destroy

Posted By: John Carney

“I invest in anything that Bernanke can’t destroy, including gold, canned beans, bottled water and flashlight batteries," David Stockman tells Jennifer DePaul of the Fiscal Times .

Getty Images

Federal Reserve Bank Chairman Ben Bernanke

Stockman rose to fame as a Hayek quoting Congressman who became Ronald Reagan's budget director. His conversations with journalist William Greider created a firestorm because Stockman was deeply critical of the Reagan administration's supply-side budget practices. These days he's working on a book about the financial crisis.

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Wednesday, 6 Oct 2010 | 1:04 PM ET

Jan Hatzius Versus Abby Joseph Cohen

Posted By: John Carney

Yesterday the chief economist for Goldman Sachs, Jan Hatzius, reportedly said that the chances of the U.S. sliding back into a recession are between 25 and 30 percent. Today he is out with a note describing our economic prospects as being either "fairly bad" or "very bad."

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Wednesday, 6 Oct 2010 | 11:29 AM ET

MEOW — The Hostile Bidding Continues

Posted By: Nicole Lapin

Tech companies have been on a shopping spree, and VeriFone — with $400 million in cash — tells me they are ready to spend, spend, spend.

CNBC.com

Negotiating Pay

The claws have come out. This time it’s electronic payment device maker VeriFone versus rival Hypercom. VeriFone's CEO tells me that he's moving forward with its hostile takeover of Hypercom after two rejections in as many weeks.

“We continue to be interested in the business but we’re very disciplined buyers,” VeriFone CEO Doug Bergeron told me.

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Wednesday, 6 Oct 2010 | 9:38 AM ET

Shock and Awe: The U.S. Deficit Problem

Posted By: Lori Ann LaRocco

Earlier this week I was driving my kids to school when I saw a vandalized street sign that was so striking that I had to pull over and take a picture of it.

Someone had spray painted over the a sign announcing that a road work project was funded by "The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act." The words spray-painted on the sign: "Funded by China."

I live in a nice quiet, country town in New Jersey where the bear and deer are seen on a regular basis, coyote sometimes pop up and even the occasional mountain lion has been spotted. It's hardly the kind of place where you'd expect vandals to be making comments on international debt flows.

The three words scrawled on that sign should be a warning shot for Congress. Many Americans are deeply troubled by the amount of debt the government is accumulating. The level of reliance on foreign capital, especially Chinese capital, to support our economy is worrying. I decided to get to the phones after I clicked that picture to get some Congressional reaction to what I saw.

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Wednesday, 6 Oct 2010 | 8:26 AM ET

Fallen Hedge Funder Forced to Sell Collection of “Museum-Grade” Mole Hair Teddy Bears

Posted By: Ash Bennington

Ireland downgraded again: European sovereign spreads widen. (CNBC.com)

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Tuesday, 5 Oct 2010 | 4:56 PM ET

Cost Estimate of TARP Continues to Fall

Posted By: Ash Bennington

Equity indexes rally ahead of key economic numbers. Investors see "win-win": (Wall Street Journal) If it’s good, it’s good — and if it’s bad, it’s good, because The Fed will backstop the market. (Editorial: Wait, does that make any damned sense? I may have considered buying stock in Pets.com back in the 90’s — but I’m wiser this time around.)

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Tuesday, 5 Oct 2010 | 3:41 PM ET

Greenberg: For-Profits — Blame It on The Short-Sellers

Posted By: Herb Greenberg

From the bizarre lawsuit file: I was wondering how long it would be before the for-profit college started suing short-sellers.

I didn’t expect this: A private for-profit suing a public community college in a suit that names several short-sellers as co-conspirators.

Chief among them: Steve Eisman of FrontPoint Partners, who has been vocal and very public in his criticism of the industry.

The suit was filed by The Keiser School, a private company, which operates Keiser University in Florida. Keiser is suing Florida State College in Jacksonville and several of its administrators.

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Tuesday, 5 Oct 2010 | 3:08 PM ET

Bert The Broker

Posted By: Julia La Roche

We found this hilarious video on youtube that's a parody of a former lacrosse player, Bert Breakfast, who imitates a Goldman Sachs junior analyst. We don't know if the actor actually works for Goldman.

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Tuesday, 5 Oct 2010 | 1:31 PM ET

Blogonomics: The New York Observer's Bid For DealBreaker

Posted By: John Carney

The news that the New York Observer is close to a deal to acquire DealBreaker has already spurred lots of smart commentary, including pieces from Mike Merced , Felix Salmon and Robert Cyran .

New York Observer

For those of you who are new to the story, here's what's going on: The New York Observer wants to buy DealBreaker, a Wall Street tabloid blog that has served as the platform for the humor and scoops of writer Bess Levin. Breaking Media, which owns DealBreaker as well as Fashionista and AboveTheLaw, would reportedly like to sell. But Bess Levin is holding out for more money, according to Nicholas Carlson at Business Insider .

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