ROUND UP
Markets crawled to a close on Monday on light trading, as Eurozone news confused investors. The S&P 500 closed down 0.03 per cent. Meanwhile, yields on Spanish yields fell to their lowest levels since early June, with 10 year notes dropping to 6.28 per cent (Financial Times). Read more
While interest rates are likely to stay low for some time yet, they can’t be that way forever. When rates finally go up, banks could be in a position to profit — provided their balance sheets are ready.
An investor could attempt to research which banks will be best placed for such a shift. For retail banks in particular, since their business models are not as diverse as investment banks, a handy disclosure to look for in financial statements would be net interest income sensitivity. Read more
Colourful language warning – well, it is Ayn Rand:
[Rand] thinks Hayek’s definition of a person’s “own sphere” in which his views are supreme could be narrowed down to “mere breathing”; Hayek’s rejection of “dogmatic laissez-faire attitude” gets him called “The God Damned abysmal fool”. When Hayek accepts that certain goods, like roads and pollution abatement, need to be supplied by government, he is “so saturated with all the bromides of collectivism that it is terrifying”. When Hayek talks of the “very defined limits” in which individualism “allows” people to follow their “own values and preferences rather than somebody else’s,” Rand thunders, “Oh God damn the total, complete, vicious bastard! This means that man does exist for others, but since he doesn’t know how to do it, the master will give him some ‘defined limits’ for himself”. Read more
Dearie me – what an atrocious headline.
Well, that didn’t work out.
Former Polly Peck boss Asil Nadir, who skipped to northern Cyprus almost 20 years ago, only to return to Britain in 2010 to finally face fraud charges, has been found guilty of three theft-related counts. The jury found Nadir not guilty on one charge and on Monday they retired to consider nine remaining counts. Read more
Alternate title:”Vergemeinschaftungen von Solvenzrisiken” — which means, apparently, “mutualization of solvency risks” (h/t our own Joseph Cotterill).
So Germany’s Spiegel magazine gave markets some froth earlier this morning via this story. It said, without citing any sources, that the the European Central Bank is considering placing a cap on peripheral bond spreads over German Bunds. Read more
A couple of years is a significant delayed reaction. Or maybe it’s not when looking at Italy’s labour markets, with all the structural rigidity embedded therein.
In a note published on Monday, SocGen’s James Nixon looked beyond the gigantic pile of sovereign debt to squint at the country’s productivity. He noticed that in the first crisis-induced slump, unemployment didn’t rise as much as it perhaps should have (emphasis ours): Read more
Live markets commentary from FT.com
Good morning, New York
FT ALPHAVILLE Read more
Namely, property:
Yes, Bryce Elder and Paul Murphy have returned from their summer hiatus.
Markets Live gets underway again at 11am on Monday. Read more
Elsewhere on Monday,
- ‘China is different. Don’t ask, just buy‘. Read more
There are calls to limit the role of Chinese investors in consortiums bidding for UK nuclear contracts. Several people familiar with the sale process said UK officials had signalled a preference for the two competing consortiums’ Chinese partners to be minority investors in the project (Financial Times).
The ECB is considering setting interest rate thresholds to trigger purchases of peripheral eurozone bonds, according to a report in Der Spiegel. “Germany’s weekly Spiegel magazine, which did not name its sources, said on Sunday that the ECB would decide whether to implement such thresholds at its September meeting.” The ECB said it had no comment (Reuters). Read more
1Time to take basic income seriously?
2We cannae give the economy no more, we're giv'n it all we've got Captain
3The case for official e-money +1
4Hacking and property prices make the BoE big league
5"Companies should know who really owns them..."
Show more6Tax needn't be taxing. It can also be a Hungarian debt wheeze
7QE down under
8The end of the end of the end of the commodities supercycle is nigh, in Asia
9When liquidity meets control in China [updated with credit crunch probability]
10The central bank (communications) bubble
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