Katya Grishakova

Bio

Katya Grishakova left the financial industry after spending more than a decade at various Wall Street firms. She is now a board member of ACT NOW, a New York progressive organization.

America is a Rigged Poker Game, So It's Time We Change the Rules
By Katya Grishakova
The culture of entrepreneurship and risk-taking has always been central to American history and character, but in the last few decades it has taken on a rather bizarre and unnatural form. The ideology of competition has penetrated our political and…
Magnetar Capital Sinks Its Teeth Into a Small Ohio Town, At Local Resident's Expense
By Katya Grishakova
Magnetar Capital LLC, the infamous hedge fund that has been under SEC investigation for its role in the subprime mortgage crisis, is onto its new business venture, this time in a small Ohio town. Magnetar has recently bought 1,900 rental properties…
Congratulations! We Just Paid $24 Billion For One Man's $800K Fundraising Scheme
By Katya Grishakova
According to Standard & Poor’s estimates, the government shutdown may have cost the economy $24 billion and shaved 0.6 points off the fourth-quarter GDP. But the full damage will be assessed in months to come and is probably going to be even…
Here's Everything That Could Happen If the U.S. Breaches the Debt Ceiling
By Katya Grishakova
The United States, like the House Lannister, always pays its debts. The U.S. is on the path to reach its debt ceiling on October 17. Whatever comes on October 17 we will be in uncharted waters. No one can know for sure what will happen then, but we…
Ben Bernanke Quantitative Easing: He's Surprised That You're Surprised By the Decision
By Katya Grishakova
On Wednesday, Bernanke caught everyone by surprise by announcing the continuation of his $85 billion per month asset purchasing program also known as Quantitative Easing (QE). I’m surprised markets are surprised. Since about April, the conversation…
Your Simple Guide to What Happens If the Government Shuts Down Next Month
By Katya Grishakova
Forget Syria. A few weeks from now everyone will be talking about the yet another debt ceiling fight between the Congress and Obama administration. Republicans in Congress are threatening to shut down the government unless Obama agrees to defund his…
Thomas Sowell Reveals a Glaring Inconsistency in Right-Wing Thinking in Latest Op-Ed
By Katya Grishakova
Conservatives like to assume a laissez-faire posture when it comes to guns and markets, but then, in the same breath, lament that people can be evil. Conservatives can't have it both ways: people are either rational and should be left to their own…
FOMC Meeting June 2013: Don't Expect Drastic Action From the Federal Reserve
By Katya Grishakova
This week Ben Bernanke and his colleagues at the Federal Reserve are holding their usual FOMC meeting to decide on the next course of action for the nation's monetary policy. “Taper” is the word of the month. Tapering refers to the Fed’s alleged…
Berkshire Hathaway Shareholders Meeting: Why Warren Buffett is Still the Best in the Biz
By Katya Grishakova
Tens of thousands of Warren Buffett's disciples and Berkshire Hathaway shareholders descended on Omaha, Nebraska last weekend for the annual Berkshire Hathaway shareholder's meeting. Buffett, who wrote his first Tweet a few days ago, has since…
Jobs Numbers: Today's Unemployed Are Better At Managing Risk Than Business Leaders
By Katya Grishakova
I recently had an online discussion with one libertarian friend after he posted an allegorical morality tale about a professor who gave all his students the same low grade regardless of their effort: in the end the best students stopped bothering…
Why Rupert Murdoch Lecturing the Poor Won't Win Converts to Capitalism
By Katya Grishakova
Rupert Murdoch makes a rather weak case for the free market’s morality. As the conservative chairman and CEO of News Corporation, Murdoch addressed the morality of free markets in a recent editorial in the New York Post. The essence of Murdoch's…
This One Microsoft Excel Error Helped Spark Mass Riots Across Europe
By Katya Grishakova
What's that Excel error that everyone is talking about? Two renowned economists, Kenneth Rogoff and Carmen Reinhart, published a research paper in 2010 where they explored the correlation between countries’ amount of debt and growth. They concluded…
North Korea War: The Trouble Will End By April 25
By Katya Grishakova
We will all forget about North Korea in a few days. This entire “escalation” will be over by April 20-25, according to Andrei Lankov, a professor of history in Seoul University and an expert on North Korea. “People who talk about an imminent…