Posts from Monday May 7 2012

The Closer

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

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| May 07 2012 22:22 | Comment |

ROUND-UP

Bank stocks led the S&P 500, which ended mostly flat, up 0.04 per cent to 1,369.58. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed down 0.23 per cent at 13,008.53 (Reuters). Read more

Cullen Roche in the FT

| May 07 2012 21:42 | Comment |

Previously we covered the belated entrance of Modern Monetary Theory into mainstream discussion after a long Washington Post article.

Cullen Roche of Pragmatic Capitalism, formerly a proponent of MMT until recently switching to a related theory known as Modern Monetary Realism, has an op-ed in today’s FT that we think is worth reading for a succinct take on how the beliefs of these heterodox theories apply to the recent financial crises in the developed world. Read more

One giant leap for America’s credit cards

| May 07 2012 20:26 | Comment |

Quite a blow-out in March’s US consumer credit numbers…

Highlighted in the chart below… Read more

We pause for some big-picture good news

Cardiff writes mostly about US macroeconomic issues, with daily excursions into other topics about which he claim no expertise. Before Alphaville, Cardiff spent a little more than two years as a reporter at Dow Jones Financial News covering investment banking, asset management, and private equity. Along the way he has written freelance pieces on a variety of other topics from behavioural psychology to Muay Thai, the latter also being a personal interest that involves frequently getting kicked in the shins (and torso, and head).

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| May 07 2012 19:42 | Comment |

This chart from Credit Suisse is included in a note about the graying of America and the developed world’s demographic problems and future runaway deficits and frightening old-age dependency ratios and blah blah bliggity blah…

These are difficult issues and we’ll continue to write about the financial and economic implications of same, but this blogger returned from holiday about five minutes ago and feels like looking on the bright side of things for just one post. So instead we’re going to think about this in the happier and more obviously humane context of living standards rising and people living longer: Read more

‘Loosening’ the memorandum

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

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| May 07 2012 17:14 | Comment |

*VENIZELOS SAYS MUST HAVE TALKS WITH EU PARTNERS ON TERMS

*VENIZELOS SAYS MUST EXTEND TIME OF PROGRAM TO END 2015 Read more

Hollande win, Greek deadlock – the analysts react

Izabella Kaminska joined FT Alphaville in October 2008. Before that she worked as a producer at CNBC, a natural gas reporter at Platts and an associate editor of BP's internal magazine.

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| May 07 2012 11:09 | Comment |

It’s a Bank Holiday Monday in the UK so analysis is pretty thin on the ground. But here’s the best of what we have so far. A quick recap: François Hollande won the French election, while the Greeks rejected the country’s main austerity focused parties, opening the country to political uncertainty.

From Kit Juckes at Societe Generale: Read more

Overnight markets: Down

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

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| May 07 2012 05:42 | Comment |

Asian markets
Nikkei 225 down -248.60 (-2.65%) at 9,132
Topix down -18.80 (-2.37%) at 774.07
Hang Seng down -512.86 (-2.43%) at 20,573

US markets
S&P 500 down -22.47 (-1.61%) at 1,369
DJIA down -168.32 (-1.27%) at 13,038 Read more

The 6am Cut London – election edition*

Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.

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| May 07 2012 05:41 | Comment |

Francois Hollande claimed victory in France and Greece’s two biggest parties were left without a clear majority in election results seen as a challenge to austerity policies, says Bloomberg.

Greece may face another election within months even if New Democracy and Pasok do scrape together a majority coalition, as official projections indicate, says the FT. Minority parties drew Read more