FTAlphavilleFT Alphaville is a 2008 Webby Award Winner

A serious question, in our view, since predictions of Farmageddon (© Donald Coxe) are suddenly everywhere. But witness this chart, using data from the Economist, knocked up by Albert Edwards at Societe Generale: More…

On the one hand, there’s newly soaring inflation. On the other, the politically unappealing prospect of a housing crash.

We know where the Bank of England’s priorities will be. Gordon Brown, as the man who handed the BoE its independence and inflation-targeting mandate, More…

“Investment banking pins hopes on Asia”, reports the FT on Tuesday, summing up an increasingly common refrain among bankers.

The latest figures from Thomson Reuters would appear to confirm the optimism of bankers such as John Thain, More…

On FT Alphaville this morning,

- Anyone for credit?

- Barclays updates some numbers.

- And goes poaching in ABN’s investment bank, hiring those it failed to buy.

- Farmaggedon and word of goings-on a Misys, More…

Interesting nuggets from Tim Price on the dual rise in energy and agricultural commodity prices.

Will the rising prices of food and fuel dismantle the growth story in Asia, he asks? UBS estimates that China’s foreign currency reserves, More…

Markets live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:07 on 13 May 2008. Participants in this chat were: Paul Murphy (PM) Neil Hume (NH) The Grim Reaper (GR)   PM:Welcome to Markets Live    More…

Inflation through the roof, A&L smashed, along with Bradford & Bingley, HBOS, Barclays…

Sound familiar?  Try this:

It is our thesis that Wall Street’s two cynical campaigns to enrich itself by inflating bubbles and draining investor savings (the tech mania and housing bubble) have done more than spawn two unnecessary recessions and a global financial crisis: More…

A (slightly messy) Chart of the Day - corporate demand for credit goes the way of consumer lending and mortgages:

It comes from the ECB’s lending survey for April - a publication that Robert Self, More…

One insight from the burgeoning field of behavioural finance might surprise you: investment committees should take their decisions by secret ballot.

The reason is that research shows that dissent can be a powerful invigorator for new ideas. More…

A&L stuck the good news in the first line of their interim statement - core operating profit in the first four months of the year was “similar” to the same period in 2007. Trouble is, no one cared about core operating profit when they saw what came next. More…

Another European bank calling on shareholders to boost ailing capital ratios. Credit Agricole wants €5.9bn.
Les Echos had the story.

In setting its Tier 1 target at 8.5 per cent, Credit Agricole is broadly in line with UK peers that have bolstered their balance sheets for tough times ahead. More…

Away from the number-updating at HQ ahead of Thursday’s update, Barclays Capital was on the warpath on Tuesday, hiring a pride of corporate financiers from ABN Amro.

The announced team, led by Jitesh Gadhia, More…

Strange goings on at Barclays on Tuesday. According to London-based banking analysts, the bank notified them that the consensus figure for earnings per share published on the Barclays website had been “updated.” More…

Elsewhere on Tuesday,

- Samba Wealth Fund

- The Times’ business department moves to Netherlands Antilles

- Greenberg’s letter to the AIG board

- The economists are telling us that everything is going to be fine. More…

Comment and analysis from Tuesday’s FT:

Lex: Hedge fund lock-ups
Why are investors in hedge funds willingly submitting to ever-longer lock-ups of their capital? After all, the lesson of the past year is that it makes sense to shift rapidly away from managers and assets that turn out to be duds. More…

The latest on Tuesday:

- Credit Agricole will announce plans on Thursday to raise several billion euros to cover further writedowns at its investment bank Calyon, reports Les Echos, alongside the departure of chief executive Marc Litzler. More…

Hewlett-Packard on Monday was nearing an agreement to buy Electronic Data Systems for as much as $13bn in a deal aimed at challenging IBM’s dominance in information technology services. HP, the world’s biggest IT company by sales, More…

Clear Channel Communications, the radio station and outdoor advertising company, confirmed on Monday it was in talks with the banks financing its LBO as speculation grew that an agreement on a lower-priced takeover by buy-out groups Thomas H Lee and Bain was in sight. More…

The US housing market downturn could last for at least another year, HSBC predicted on Monday as it revealed it had set aside $5.8bn due to credit turmoil in the current quarter. The bank, one of the first to suffer from the US subprime mortgage meltdown, More…

MBIA on Monday reported a $2.4bn loss for the first quarter as the world’s largest bond insurer took billions of dollars of writedowns on derivatives contracts in a deteriorating credit market. The loss was more than twice analysts’ estimates, More…

Finmeccanica, Italy’s largest defence contractor, has finalised a deal to buy DRS Technologies, a leading supplier to the US military, for $5.28bn. The deal secures Finmeccanica, 34% owned by the Italian state, More…

Government of Singapore Investment Corp has bought an 11% stake in US-based energy infrastructure company AEI for $400m, reports Reuters. GIC Special Investments, the Singapore fund’s private equity arm, More…

Cablevision, the US cable TV operator, on Monday emerged as the winner in a bid battle for Newsday, the Long Island tabloid owned by Tribune, topping offers from Rupert Murdoch and Mortimer Zuckerman. The transaction, More…

Shares in Chloride surged on Monday after the power protection group rejected a takeover approach from Emerson Electric of the US. Chloride said the approach, which comes as investors continue to circle technology infrastructure assets, More…

EnCana shares rose sharply on Monday as investors bet that predators would soon start circling one or both of two new companies due to emerge from a split of the Canadian energy group. One of the new publicly traded units will focus on deep natural gas deposits, More…

Carphone Warehouse, the UK’s third largest broadband provider, on Monday suffered a significant setback when it was excluded from a shortlist of would-be buyers of Tiscali, the Milan-listed internet company, More…

Northern Rock revealed Monday the number of borrowers behind with repayments had jumped sharply since the UK mortgage lender was nationalised. The number of mortgages where payments were behind by three months or more jumped to 0.95% of its outstanding loan book, More…

A Morgan Stanley fund has become the biggest shareholder in Livedoor, the internet start-up that was at the centre of one of Japan’s biggest financial scandals. Hybrid Capital Second, a Morgan Stanley investment vehicle, More…

Investors may pile more than $200bn of fresh capital into the hedge fund industry this year, and strategies focused on Asia ex-Japan will be in strong demand, said Deutsche Bank in its annual Alternative Investment Survey. More…

Parts of the largely unregulated $62,000bn credit derivatives market should be subject to the kind of tighter controls that at present govern the insurance industry, New York’s insurance regulator said Monday. More…