Mojo RISER

Motel money, murder madness
Let's change the mood from glad to sadness
--The Doors

Am attending U of Dayton's RISE conference over the next coupla days. Missed the morning sessions but caught two interesting afternoon panels, one on risk management post credit crisis and the other on general economic outlook going forward.

Can't scribe much right now, but will note that none of the four professional risk mgrs (Nuveen, two hedge funds, Credit Suisse) on the first panel were able to steer their firms from major losses during the meltdown. The two hedge fund guys both admitted that without the bailouts, they would be not be around today. The lady from Nuveen was at WaMu during the meltdown and we know how that turned out.

On the economic outlook panel, the audience (maybe 2000 strong) were asked they thought that chances of recession were significant over next 12 months. Perhaps half dozen hands went up. All five panelists (JPM, MS, Fed Reserve, EU guy, Western Southern strategists/CIOs) were all very bullish. Only the moderator, an economist who does radio for Bloomberg, voiced bearish concerns.

It once again became clear to me during this discussion that the finanicial services industry is a license to print money for its participants with little downside for taking too much risk. Everyday people just do not understand how much wealth transfer is occurring with the system as currently structured. It is so far away from a free market that it is mind numbing.

position in SPX