Comments on: Don’t Drink The Water: The Corruption Index

By: grange

grange — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:37:55 +0000

to InfiniteGuest@37
we are not disagreeing. “corrupt” and “stable” are not mutually exclusive. i agree that a corrupt but stable regime will usually beat out a less corrupt but volatile regime. however,in general, a corrupt regime will be less efficient.

By: InfiniteGuest

InfiniteGuest — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 19:30:10 +0000

@36 I disagree on both points.
A “corrupt” yet stable regime is more efficient and cheaper to work with, especially on long-term, large-scale projects that need financing. Political instability adds cost, just as an open and transparent process (with its attendant bureaucracy) adds cost.
AHFM benefits from floating his ideas here without having to own them.

By: grange

grange — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 18:33:10 +0000

this article states the obvious. more corruption means more market inefficiencies meaning more costs to the economy. if the writer is Ben H. at HBK, he should get back to trading and cut back on all these postings.

By: guest

guest — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:13:01 +0000

@34 FTW!

By: guest

guest — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:31:22 +0000

Amazingly, the upper left quadrant is dominated by 4 datapoints that are not countries at all, rather DC, Chicagoland, 85 Broad, and Charlotte respectively.

By: guest

guest — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 19:17:58 +0000

Is the guy who hired him Simon Treacher? I know he used to come up with these things and he definitely was very close to the local policy makers to know how corrupt they were. Wouldn’t be surprised if our anonymous source hence works at BlueBay. Anybody else got any views?

By: guest

guest — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:56:56 +0000

@31 you’re a douche. it’s ben heller, and he is the pm on the emerging markets desk. so yeah, he runs it.

By: guest

guest — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 18:55:52 +0000

please stop saying he “runs the desk” and say what the person does for a living. the office manager runs desks.

By: guest

guest — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:58:06 +0000

not sure it makes sense to imply some cause/effect relationship there…

By: guest

guest — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:55:27 +0000

Was I the only one who read, “full understanding of my old boss’s dictum” as “full understanding of my boss’s rectum?”

By: guest

guest — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:54:51 +0000

@mc
I’m just saying that a fit of 0.5 isn’t something that I’d build a model around.
@AHFM
The problem with corruption is, obviously, the lack of transparency in the system. Things could work smoothly, or the president for life could decide that next week he’s not paying back the IMF. I think it’s hard to say that CDS for EM has the same information baked into it that you’d see for non-EM countries, and makes it a suspect measure. Not that I’m saying it’s not useful, but that it’s not the most informative.

By: guest

guest — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:38:32 +0000

fuck that. russia’s a berry. can’t wait to get funding.
-JM Advisors

By: guest

guest — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:37:49 +0000

@24/19
Think he meant 18

By: guest

guest — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:37:00 +0000

23 came to work today.

By: guest

guest — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:35:40 +0000

@22 ?
-19