RSS feed[SFTW] Merv’s swerve from inflation control
It was almost a throwaway remark from Sir Mervyn King. At the end of another uncomfortable press conference, he floated the idea that the 2 per cent inflation target has had its day. In the real world,
Further further reading
For the commute home,
- The rise of beeronomics.
- Why demand for cars will stay elevated.
- Lucas Van Praag’s accidental exit interview.
- Whitney Houston’s songs will continue to make money…
The decline of US housing inventory
Depending on how you look at it, you would probably be justified in reacting to this chart from SocGen with either optimism or pessimism:
Optimism because the decline in overall inventory has recently fallen fast,
Geithner: Nice committee, you guys are hilarious
Just a bit of Friday afternoon tomfoolery before we get back to our day job.
This has made the rounds already (HT Joe at Clusterstock and see also the WSJ’s Washington Wire, for instance), but we couldn’t resist mentioning it.
ECB seniority and dirty hands
First, do read Dan Davies’ bailout options post if you haven’t already. It’s like a Greek Kobayashi Maru. Except you have no hope of ending up like James T Kirk. We got to number 5.
But speaking of Greek debt situations where there are no good outcomes left…
US Markets Live transcript 17 Feb 2012
Markets Live chat transcript for the chat ending at 16:07 on 17 Feb 2012. Participants in this chat were: Cardiff Garcia Joseph Cotterill, FT CGHello! JCHola CGListen,
[AV meets Naked Capitalism] Regulations… and optimism
For this, our final post covering FT Alphaville’s meeting with Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism, we asked her about the regulations that have arisen from the ashes of the financial crisis. Not wanting to leave the series on a depressing note,
QE-lite in Hungary
It’s understandable why the introduction of a two-year collateralised credit facility as well as the expansion of the range of eligible collateral accepted by Hungary’s central bank, the Magyar Nemzeti Bank (MNB),
For the ECB, a French (history) lesson
On French inflation during the 1920s, that is.
Central bankers continue to be oh-so-blasé about their ever-expanding balance sheets, swiping aside all those worries of triggering a surge in inflation.
Markets Live transcript 17 Feb 2012
Markets Live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:03 on 17 Feb 2012. Participants in this chat were: Paul Murphy Bryce Elder/FT PMMorning PMWe’re here. PMIts friday
The LTRO 2 outlier…
Courtesy of the European economics team at UBS…
We want to meet the respondent who said €3 trillion. Were they just larking around or where they going for a wild outlier on the book in the hope they might strike lucky and look like a genius.
Petmezas: It pays to pay investment bankers
From Prof Dimitris Petmezas, Chair in Finance at Surrey Business School, University of Surrey…
Investment banks, and particularly top ones, have been in the firing line over their role in the recent financial crisis and the very high – some might say exorbitant – fees they receive.
Further reading
Elsewhere on Friday,
- Choose your own Greece adventure, a wise lesson in bailouts.
- Latin advice for Greece: Don’t leave the euro.
- Lehman advice for the eurozone: Don’t let Greece go.
- Al Gore’s “loyalty-driven securities”.
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Friday’s FT,
Philip Stephens: The Sun sinks Murdoch
Now you know what it’s like, writes the FT’s Philip Stephens. So a politician friend chuckled the other day after police roused several journalists from their beds for questioning about the alleged bribery of public officials.
Further further reading
For the commute home,
- Measuring the consequences of the zero bound constraint.
- What Europe loses if Greece is forced out.
- The power of the personal: individual stories of Irish families struggling with arrears and joblessness.
Something interesting and ignored in yesterday’s FOMC minutes
The media never pays much attention to the discussion in the FOMC minutes that presents the views of Fed staff economists; we all flock to the parts that describe the thinking of the FOMC participants themselves.
Green light on how the City works
Andrew Osborne is justified to feel hard done by. A single four-word remark in a long phone conversation has cost him a small fortune. The words were “something like 350 sterling”, an amount which bears a curious symmetry to the £350,000 fine which the FSA has just levied on him.
Roubini for World Bank?
Lateral idea. And it’s not ours.
While we love the clubbable doomster, we share this without endorsement…
Ziad Abdelnour, CEO of Blackhawk Partners and author of Economic Warfare offers the following observations:
Vix dog millionaire
Macro Risk Advisors’ (MRA) Dean Curnutt has picked on a very interesting development in the land of volatility ETNs. In the last few days there’s been an absolutely astounding amount of vega trading through these products.
The Punch Call (updated)
DAVID EINHORN: Oh, you’re — you’re — you’re getting more than — than I could help with anyway. So, this is good.
PUNCH CEO: Okay. That’s fair enough. Well, one day we’ll get you a round on a pub crawl around some English pubs.
Markets Live transcript 16 Feb 2012
Markets Live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:02 on 16 Feb 2012. Participants in this chat were: Paul Murphy Bryce Elder/FT PMHi there PMWelcome to ML PMI should mention straight away that Bryce and I are both ill
A fistful of legacy dollars, at SocGen
More huge numbers on US dollar asset deleveraging in a French bank’s end-2011 results, on Thursday. Societe Generale got rid of $55bn in funding needs in the six months from June 2011:
(All charts via SocGen’s Q4 2011 presentation)
Though a significant part of it,
Further reading
Elsewhere on Thursday,
- Come on financial blogosphere, let’s all try to get along.
- Nasa wants a space colonization outpost.
- Approaching the singularity in global finance.
- The case for,
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Thursday’s FT,
David Pilling: India’s ‘bumble bee’ defies gravity
Who is the most powerful person in India, asks the FT’s David Pilling? Manmohan Singh,
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Thursday,
– SocGen misses forecasts – Bloomberg
– Sales dip at BAE Systems – statement
– “Positive momentum” at Reed Elsevier — statement
– Flat numbers from Ladbrokes – statement
– Kingfisher embarks on “Creating the Leader”
Moody’s is reviewing a long list of European and global banks
Moody’s ratings of Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley and UBS are set to fall up to three notches after the ratings agency announced reviews of both European banks, and global banks and securities firms with credit market operations.
Dick Bove has the (very short) answer to what’s going on with Greece
His latest missive, in its entirety (less all the regulatory guff):
Tongue in Cheek
Paying Down the Greek Debt
A client suggested to me that the Greeks have become so expert at manipulating the U.S.
Further further reading
For the commute home,
- The Volcker Rule’s unusual critics.
- Economic data warms hearts, but doesn’t change minds.
- Greece is on pace for the worst recession in modern history.
- Where
FOMC minutes for the Jan 24-25, 2012 meeting
A few items to note as we come across them:
1) Recall that at the end of the meeting, the Fed released a new “Statement of Longer-Run Goals and Monetary Policy Strategy”, making explicit its 2 per cent inflation target.