The Institutional Risk Analyst

New York | Updated -- Q: How much of a rate cut did Fed Chairman Jerome Powell deliver to the markets last month when he stopped the runoff of the Fed’s portfolio of securities? A: Half a point. Now why hasn’t President Donald Trump reciprocated with some flowers via Twitter for Chairman Powell? But hold that thought. We are filled with sadness watching members of the Sell Side trying to concoct a rationale for going long banks stocks in front of Q3 earnings. We own bank c

New York | Watching the meltdown of Tesla Motors (TSLA) founder and CEO Elon Musk last week unfold in the pages of The New York Times, we are reminded that enterprises need both vision and operating smarts to be successful. It was obvious years ago that Elon Musk needed help to build a new car company. Yet somehow the members of the board of directors of TSLA did nothing as Elon Musk led this extraordinary endeavor. We noted in Ford Men: From Inspiration to Enterprise that H

New York | We were in the car last week heading to Washington for the gala celebration for The American Conservative’s 15 years in existence. During the trip, we heard former auto industry executive Bob Lutz take down Tesla’s (TSLA) economic model live on CNBC. Talking to Carl Quintanilla, Lutz – who worked in senior management for all three US automakers – basically made two interesting points: that Tesla spends too much for its larger batteries and that the company’s labor

New York | In this issue of The Institutional Risk Analyst, we turn our attention to the auto sector. Kevin Tynan is the Senior Automotive Analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence and has been covering the industry for decades. We first met Kevin during the research for "Ford Men: From Inspiration to Enterprise" and value his insights on the automakers and the macro trends that impact this particularly American industry sector. We spoke to Kevin last week at his office in Princeto

Writing this week in Barron’s, Harvard economist Martin Feldstein nails the proverbial issue of excessive debt square on when he notes that European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi has run out of runway when it comes to policy prescriptions. He writes: “One of the goals of large-scale bond purchases—so-called quantitative easing— was to drive down long-term interest rates in order to stimulate business investment and housing construction. But with long-term interest rates no

"When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe." Thomas Jefferson New York | When William Clay Ford Jr., Chairman of Ford Motor Co. (NYSE:F), fired CEO Mark Fields earlier this year, he in part confirmed the view expressed in our book “Ford Men: From Inspiration to Enterprise,” that figuring out which supposed techno trend to believe (and invest in) will be a challenge. After surviving the automotive equivalent of nuc