Image Credit: Christophe Vorlet By Jason Zweig | Nov. 6, 2010 12:01 a.m. ET Decades before anybody had ever heard of a mortgage derivative, an economist named Melchior Palyi predicted key causes of the 2008-2009 financial crisis with precision that makes a modern reader’s hair stand on end. His warnings help explain why investors insist on trusting...
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Image Credit: Christophe Vorlet By Jason Zweig | Oct. 30, 2010 12:01 a.m. ET On a weekend that is all about dressing up as somebody else, consider whether your financial adviser has been masquerading all along. Investment professionals are supposed to exercise independent judgment; in Warren Buffett’s words, they should be fearful when others are...
Read MoreBy Jason Zweig | Oct. 23, 2010 12:01 a.m. ET Image credit: Christophe Vorlet This week, the People’s Bank of China jolted stock markets around the world with a surprise interest-rate rise, and the leaders of China’s Communist Party called for “accelerating the transformation of the nation’s economic-development pattern.” This...
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Image credit: Calligraphic manuscript by Georg Bocskay, illuminated by Joris Hoefnagel, ca. 1561-1596, The Getty Museum By Jason Zweig and Mary Pilon | Oct. 16, 2010 12:01 a.m. ET Just when Americans seem more desperate than ever for trustworthy investment advice, financial advisers are brandishing a baffling array of new credentials—some of which...
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Image Credit: Christophe Vorlet By Jason Zweig | Oct. 16, 2010 12:01 a.m. ET Why do powerful people with so much to lose push so hard to squeeze out a little more gain for themselves? That question lingers after The Wall Street Journal’s series of articles about securities trading by members of Congress and their aides. As the Journal has shown,...
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