News reached us last week that the great mathematician, Monty Hall, passed away at the age of 96. Better known as the host of the 1960’s TV hit, “Let’s Make a Deal,” Mr. Hall lent his name to game theory for the so-called 3-Door Monty Hall Problem. Behind three doors there’s a brand new car,…
Our story last week of the hundred-year old fruitcake captured readers’ attention. Tributes to this underappreciated treat poured into the Lead Left mailbox. “It’s believed there’s only one fruitcake in existence,” one friend wrote. “It gets passed around during the holidays from family to family. Now we all know where it came from.” There’s also…
The world’s oldest fruitcake was found in Antartica in a building left from the expedition of Robert Falcon Scott. The British explorer died during his 1912 attempt to reach the South Pole. But not apparently from eating the fruitcake. The perennial delicacy was found covered in ice, and left “wrapped in paper..and in its original…
Following our story last week on skyrocketing costs of natural vanilla flavoring, fans of confectionary innovation alerted us to another development on the sweets front. A Swiss company is launching “ruby chocolate” to appeal to millennial appetites as well as to open foreign markets less known for chocoholics. While not available to consumers until 2018,…
Turns out there’s nothing plain about vanilla. Back in March a huge storm – cyclone Enawo – struck Madagascar, a major grower responsible for supplying 80% of the world’s vanilla pods. That crop devastation caused pod prices to hit a record high this year of $600 per kilogram. “It has been ridiculous,” said the chief…
For many of us the post-Labor Day week means reacclimating to the concept of being in front of a computer in an office. And not in your bathing suit. For those in the leveraged loan market, it means wondering whether deal activity will see its usual September resurgence, and what that will mean for terms…
By all accounts it was worth waiting for. The 10th Procrastination Research Conference, held last month in Chicago, featured sixty professionals – mostly psychologists and behavioral economists – from around the world. Besides reviewing the latest findings in this unusual field, attendees discussed why so many people – one in five of us – qualify…
So far we’ve used three methodologies to size the universe of middle market loans. Using annual issuance data and average life calculations, we arrived at outstandings of $410 billion, before run-off and refinancings. Then we took the middle market refinancing cliff, which is overstated relative to outstandings, to come up with a midcap universe of…
Last week we looked at sponsored middle market loan volume to come up with an idea of how large the midcap universe is. Before run-offs and refinancings, we came up with a figure of $410 billion. Now we turn our attention to the sponsored middle market refinancing cliff. As our Chart of the Week highlights, about $238…
To get a better handle on the total universe of middle market loans, let’s define what we mean by the middle market. Should we include, for example, both non-sponsored as well as sponsored loan volume? Thomson Reuters LPC estimates there’s been an average of $100 billion in annual non-sponsored activity since 2000. But these financings…