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Forgive me, but I'm not sure I fully understand what you mean. If Germany provided the goods and took equivalent value in euros, isn't that fair exchange? Or do you mean in more of a moral sense because those other countries would be required to take debt to repay Germany for its exports? I just looked up vendor financing on Investopedia; I see what you mean now. They're basically buying their own product, until such a time that the other EU countries return the value of the exports. I can see how there could be issues with this. There's no cash flows; just deferred payments.

Forgive me, but I'm not sure I fully understand what you mean. If Germany provided the goods and took equivalent value in euros, isn't that fair exchange? Or do you mean in more of a moral sense because those other countries would be required to take debt to repay Germany for its exports?

Heard a lot about him but this is the first interview I've seen with him. Rational, constantly downplaying himself, intelligent and experienced! Brilliant man! No wonder Mr. Buffett loves American Express and IBM! If only we could get him at RIM... :-\ THANKS FOR POSTING THESE!

Found this article interesting; it represents the Euro Zone as a family and the crisis as the issue of how to solve financial matters among the members of the clan. Starring: - " Greece as the wayward uncle who never seems to settle down and who keeps asking for a little money to tide him over" - "Germany is the slightly priggish older brother, who ... usually relents in the end." - and others. http://blogs.reuters.com/edward-hadas/2012/06/13/the-euro-crisis-as-family-drama/ Sorta helped my young, feeble mind get a slightly better understanding of the crisis with some mildly amusing analogies and history :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nox2FhHDvY4 Sinatra fan? Likes Tina Fey's comedy... I think we'd get along :)

+1 haha that really must be it. :D all those fancy... links.

Indeed. It's probably a consequence of teaching efficient market theory for so long. After all, if that theory is true and you make public some info about a company and the market doesn't move, it either mean that the information was either not important or not new. Exactly, if I recall correctly; Jay Brown of MBIA played off anything that came up against MBIA as "not new news"... "reassuring" the market that they were still good for their insurance issues. Also, I think Richard was also suggesting that MBIA was repurchasing shares (especially heavily) when any negative reports came out against them ensuring no decrease in their share price. Though I may be wrong about this.

This book increased my respect for Ackman dramatically too! Welcome to the board! I think one of the many things I can take away from this book is that to attain that sort of success; it's supremely important to have done your research and know the company inside out.... which I guess would lead to gigantic photocopying/printing bills too. ;D "Ackman Devoured 140,000 Pages Challenging MBIA Rating (Update2)" http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a7.NpGwa19TY And thanks, glad to be here!

Great book! Almost halfway through it and I'm really enjoying it. My respect for Bill Ackman has grown immensely due to this book. It must take great guts to go against the herd in such a public way for 5 years and face all those challenges (SEC, attorney general's investigations, taking a battering from MBIA, news reporters, etc.) but then to come out a victor must be well worth it. Course I don't get a lot of the derivative related lingo/concepts but it gives me a reason to learn. And yay, my first post on this forum! :D