Posts from Friday Feb 1 2013

Weekender

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).

Learn more

| Subscribe to Cardiff's posts
| Feb 01 21:51 | Comment |

This week on FT Alphaville…

- We made a video asking whether robots would take all the jobs. Read more

A cap and trade proposal… for immigration

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).

Learn more

| Subscribe to Cardiff's posts
| Feb 01 19:45 | Comment |

Political change in a democratic republic can be painfully slow, and thus even the improved chance of a meagre and incremental positive change is a good enough excuse to celebrate when it comes.

The two immigration proposals that emerged early this week from the Senate and from the President could well meet this standard, though it all depends how the politics shakes out. Read more

He isn’t the Prime Minister, he’s a very naughty statistician, part two

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.)

Learn more

| Subscribe to Joseph's posts
| Feb 01 16:45 | Comment |

Andrew Dilnot strikes again:

 Read more

It’s not a collateral shortage, it’s a scarcity of collateral

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.

Learn more

| Subscribe to Izzy's posts
| Feb 01 15:23 | Comment |

Further dispatches from the Danish Institute for International Studies’ conference in Copenhagen on “Central Banking at a crossroads”.

Today we focus on the new age of collateral-based finance and the presentation given by Manmohan Singh (speaking in an independent capacity rather than as a representative of the IMF). Read more

January payrolls: +157,000, unemployment rate 7.9 per cent

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).

Learn more

| Subscribe to Cardiff's posts
| Feb 01 13:47 | Comment |

Another month, another payrolls number in the 150k range — except this one comes with big positive revisions to the prior two months. The unemployment rate ticked up slightly, but careful with this report, as it includes an updated population estimate in the household survey, and also the annual benchmarking in the establishment survey to reflect a new count of total jobs. Read the explanations at the bottom of the release for detail.

From the BLS: Read more

Markets Live: Friday, 1st February, 2013

Bryce is the FT's UK equities reporter.

Learn more

Subscribe to Bryce's posts
| Feb 01 11:04 | Comment |
This is a Markets Live transcript. Read more

Live markets commentary from FT.com 

The (early) Lunch Wrap

Masa joined the FT in 2009 and has worked on a number of desks across the paper, including Companies, Markets and Comment. She spent much of 2010 in New York covering the US equity markets. But earlier this year she finally saw the light and moved to Alphaville.

She started her career in the investment banking division at Lehman Brothers in the summer of 2007, timing it perfectly with the beginning of the credit crunch.

She studied philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University.

Learn more

Subscribe to Masa's posts
| Feb 01 10:42 | Comment |

US banks squeezed as mortgage profits hit || Hagel grilled by angry Republicans || US challenges AB InBev’s Modelo deal || Explosion at Mexico’s Pemex HQ kills 25 || Wasendorf jailed for 50 years for fraud || Markets update: a tentatively positive start to month Read more

On SWFs being paid to borrow

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.

Learn more

| Subscribe to Izzy's posts
| Feb 01 10:40 | Comment |

The big story on Friday concerns the terms and structure of Qatar’s life-saving support for Barclays at the peak of the financial crisis in 2008. As Daniel Schäfer, Caroline Binham and Simeon Kerr report, the key issue is whether Barclays lent Qatar the money to buy shares in the bank. Read more

What to make of the contradictory China manufacturing PMIs

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.

Learn more

| Subscribe to Kate's posts
| Feb 01 08:35 | Comment |

China’s official January manufacturing PMI fell to 50.4 from 50.6 while the HSBC survey rose to 52.3 from 51.5.

And yet it seems like only yesterday we were puzzling over why the HSBC survey seemed so much more bearish than the official figures…  Read more

Further reading

Masa joined the FT in 2009 and has worked on a number of desks across the paper, including Companies, Markets and Comment. She spent much of 2010 in New York covering the US equity markets. But earlier this year she finally saw the light and moved to Alphaville.

She started her career in the investment banking division at Lehman Brothers in the summer of 2007, timing it perfectly with the beginning of the credit crunch.

She studied philosophy, politics and economics at Oxford University.

Learn more

Subscribe to Masa's posts
| Feb 01 08:13 | Comment |

Elsewhere on Friday,

- Relax: banks’ risk measurements are rarely off by much more than a factor of ten.

- OCC leadership gets another surprise overhaul.

- Why the markets cannot influence financial institutions. Read more

The 6am Cut London

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.

Learn more

| Subscribe to Kate's posts
| Feb 01 05:47 | Comment |

China’s official manufacturing PMI falls, HSBC rises || Asian markets mixed, Japan rises on positive earnings || Barclays probed over whether it loaned money for Qatari stake || ‘London Whale’ warned others about his trades || US challenges AB InBev’s Modelo deal || Explosion at Pemex kills at least 14 || Samsung’s share of tablet market doubled in Q4 Read more