Earlier this week the Demos think tank published a hectoring report entitled Bailed-Out Megabanks Go Right On Gambling (But Now with Taxpayer Support).
Dick Bove seemed to think so earlier, saying “buy” Goldman, just as the stock fell 5 per cent. But there’s been such confusion (and a lack of detail) on the Obama administration’s proposals that we should spare the Rochdale Securities’ man the chance to revise his views.
Meanwhile, Krishna Guha, over on the FT’s Money Supply blog, asks a fair question: can’t Goldman (and Morgan Stanley, for that matter) simply give up their bank charters and therefore avoid all the proposals on proprietary trading, hedge funds and private equity? Read more
Off the bat, there are some obvious hedge fund losers – or at this stage, to be clear, potential losers – from the wide-ranging Obama/Volcker financial reform package unveiled on Thursday.
Highbridge Capital is, of course, the foremost. Read more
Here’s the S&P 500 regional banks index versus the old skool S&P “investment banks” barometer (consisting of Goldman, MOST, Charles Schwab and E-Trade).
Guess which is which? Read more
No, don’t expect details – but here’s the actual press-release issued in Washington at lunchtime on Thursday:
President Obama joined Paul Volcker, former chairman of the Federal Reserve; Bill Donaldson, former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission; Congressman Barney Frank, House Financial Services Chairman; Senator Chris Dodd, Chairman of the Banking Committee and the President’s economic team to call for new restrictions on the size and scope of banks and other financial institutions to rein in excessive risk taking and to protect taxpayers. Read more
REMARKS BY PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA
SUBJECT: ADDITIONAL REFORMS TO THE FINANCIAL SYSTEM Read more
Live markets commentary from FT.com
FT Alphaville is holding a special Markets Live session in light of Obama’s proposals.
The mighty Paul Volcker, of course.
Wall Street was in a spin on Thursday as everyone awaited firm details on the Obama administration’s move to ban proprietary trading by deposit-taking institutions — an action that has inevitably been dubbed the Glass-Steagall sequel. Read more
The mining sector took another leg down on Thursday afternoon in London:
Remember when Goldman Sachs changed its legal status to a Bank Holding Company in September 2008?
The investment bank of investment banks was no longer, as it converted its official categorisation to BHC, in order to gain access to the Federal Reserve’s liquidity and funding facilities. Read more
Whoa!
On Monday Bob Janjuah, chief strategist (and bear) at RBS, put digit to keyboard for the first time since November.
Kicking off with a quote from Cicero the 3000+ word note (written in the style of an SMS message) concluded that 2010 would be the year when the chickens came home to roost for the “debt binge currently being undertaken by some critically important sovereigns” (i.e. the UK and the US). Read more
FT Alphaville mentioned on Monday that the CDS market did not appear to be implying much of a contagion-effect for Central and Eastern Europe in connection with troubles in the Hellenic Republic.
And having on Thursday noted the widening spread between Greek government bonds and German bunds, a basic measure of the risk premium investors want in exchange for holding Hellenic debt, we feel the need to repeat the question. Read more
One of the most common criticisms of the financial media unleashed during the Not So Great Depression was “you didn’t warn us about [insert little known company, acronym, structured product or dubious form of home loan, here]“.
But in the case of the bond insurers, sometimes but not entirely accurately called monolines, that criticism would be more than a little unjust. Read more
Inflation is always and everywhere a monetary phenomenon.
Always and everywhere apart from in Britain, that is. Read more
Live markets commentary from FT.com
Dramatic developments in the European government bond market, where the spread between the Greek 10-year and German bunds widened to over 300bps on Thursday — the highest level since the Hellenic Republic joined the eurozone:
From Reuters:
UK COURT DENIES BSKYB APPEAL OVER KEEPING ITV STAKE. Read more
Official price talk — or the indicative range — for Manchester United’s controversial £500m bond issue is expected on Thursday and if the market whispers are correct it could be the club’s best result of the season.
The 2017 senior secured notes are expected to be priced to yield around 8.75-9 per cent, which given the leaky covenants and the club’s high leverage is remarkable, according to Evolution Securities’ Jonathan Moore: Read more
UK Banks were weaker across the board on Wednesday. What gives?
Here’s one suggestion from Evolution Securities’ Gary Jenkins: Read more
Elsewhere on Thursday,
- The easy guide to Wall Street pay and bonuses. Read more
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Thursday’s FT,
John Gapper: Charge for news or bleed red ink
Alan Rusbridger, the editor of The Guardian, spoke bluntly last week when he described the financial effects of the internet on his newspaper to journalism students in Coventry: “If I stop to think about the business model, it is sometimes quite scary.” Scary indeed, writes the FT’s Gapper. Read more
Older entries
1Time to take basic income seriously?
2We cannae give the economy no more, we're giv'n it all we've got Captain
3Hacking and property prices make the BoE big league
4The case for official e-money +1
5QE down under
Show more6Further reading
7The London 6am Cut
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