March, 2009
UN panel urges currency reform
World leaders should urgently reach consensus on creating a global reserve system to replace the US dollar as the main international currency, the UN General Assembly was told on Thursday. The recommendation,
GLG owners agree to $1 salaries
The three founding partners of GLG Partners have agreed to have their salaries cut to $1 and waived their bonuses for the year as the embattled New York-listed hedge fund manager fights to retain assets,
Swiss banks ban executive travel
Some of Switzerland’s private banks have started to ban top executives from travelling abroad, even to neighbouring France and Germany, amid fears they will be detained as part of a global crackdown on bank secrecy.
Overnight markets:Up
Asian stocks climbed on Friday in the regional benchmark index’s biggest weekly rally since 2002, as higher commodity prices and better-than-expected earnings at US companies boosted investor optimism.
CDS update: Indices flat as markets prove resilient
This CDS report was written by Markit’s Gavan Nolan
European credit indices were flat on the day, tracking a mixed performance by stock markets. Spreads have proved resilient to bad news in recent weeks,
Received at her majesty’s pleasure
So why would the Queen hold an audience with Mervyn King for the first time ever since she came to the throne 57 years ago? Does Mervyn have some gilty confessions to make?
Here’s our suggestion:
Another alleged Caribbean Ponzi
This just out from the SEC (emphasis FT Alphaville’s):
SEC Halts $68 Million Ponzi Scheme Involving Caribbean-Based Bank and Swiss Affiliate
Washington, D.C., March 26, 2009 – The Securities and
A gilty displeasure
If you thought Wednesday’s gilt auction failure was worrying for the government, its quantitative easing efforts, which rely on the market’s want to sell securities back to the Bank of England, are clattering rather than swimming along nicely.
Toytown economics – then and now
A charming little tale has come our way – one published in the Independent some time ago…
Debt is a dirty word that dominates economic debate in Toytown today. This is why.
A decade ago the only house in Toytown was owned by Big Ears.
‘THE ENTIRE US SYSTEM IS COMMITTING SUICIDE’
Says, err, someone claiming to be an employee at AIG’s financial products business.
Clusterstock has what purports to be yet another AIG letter and let’s just say it has a rather different tone to the resignation missive of Jake DeSantis.
Geithner’s game plan
Full text, with highlights, below.
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Introduction
Thank you Chairman Frank, Ranking Member Bachus, and other members of the Committee. I appreciate the opportunity to testify about the critical topic of financial regulatory reform.
In better-than-expected GDP we trust
Recent market “we have bottomed” euphoria continues with major US indices trading in positive territory after the final estimate on US fourth-quarter GDP came in better than feared by most in the market.
Sovereign wealth funds prefer equities
Sovereign wealth funds are overwhelmingly exposed to equities and fixed income, according to the latest data from Preqin, a research firm which focuses on alternative asset classes.
SWFs’ appetite for Western assets – notably financial institutions,
The ascent of the shadow economy
In times of financial uncertainty, shadow economies and ‘grey markets’ flourish. That’s because when you’re jobless, penniless and credit-less, the grey market offers both the means for earning ‘cash-in-hand’ as well as acquiring tax-free goods and services.
CDS report: Buy-backs boost sub debt
The cost of protecting junior bank bonds against default had a rare bout of better sentiment on Thursday after Lloyds Group added to the growing series of tender offers that are offering the most desperate investors an escape route while adding a marginal bid to the market.
Lunch Wrap
On FT Alphaville this morning,
- US and Japanese savings: the quiet reversal.
- Goldman in China.
- AIB defrauded, SFO investigating.
- Man’s makeover.
- Geithner not wrong, simply misunderstood.
Que QE, ECB
Fresh off the wires.
RTRS-ECB’S PAPADEMOS SAYS RISK OF PROTECTIONISM IS ONE OF GREATEST THREATS WE FACING
RTRS-ECB’S PAPADEMOS – IT MAY BE WARRANTED THAT CENTRAL BANK PURCHASES PRIVATE SECTOR BONDS TO ENHANCE LIQUIDITY
RTRS-ECB’S PAPADEMOS – NO DECISIONS TAKEN ON NEED OF SUCH AN INTERVENTION
It’s not much,
Markets live transcript 26 Mar 2009
Markets live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:09 on 26 Mar 2009. Participants in this chat were: Paul Murphy, FT (PM) Neil Hume, FT (NH) PM:bear with us bear with us — Neil’s machine has started typing in Russian
Goldman’s required (Chinese) reading
Never one to pass up a chance to make money – or to let go of a lucrative project in-hand – Goldman Sachs has shown some uncharacteristic uncertainty over its maybe-maybe-not deliberations about whether to sell down its 4.9 per cent stake in Industrial and Commercial Bank of China – described by Bloomberg on Thursday as “the world’s most profitable bank”
Man Group makeover
Man Group has called in the re-branding experts.
The RMF and Glenwood fund of fund businesses are being crunched together to form a “new” integrated hedge fund management division, which does not appear to have a name.
AIB suffers apparent property fraud
What is it about Irish banks?
The Serious Fraud Office has commenced an investigation, together with City of London Police, into an alleged fraud on the Corporate Banking Department of Allied Irish Banks Plc.
Diverging strategies, airline edition
While most of the world’s airlines weather recession by hunkering down, trimming capacity to cut costs and deal with slackening demand, there are those that have a somewhat different strategy. Spot the odd ones out in this Bernstein chart.
US and Japanese savings – the quiet reversal
One of the most striking shifts in the deployment of capital on the American and Asian sides of the Pacific has been occurring quietly and with relatively little comment in the past year – a surge in America’s notoriously low savings rates and a slide in Japan’s traditionally stratospheric savings rates. As the FT reports on Thursday:
A global growth surprise from UBS
UBS is reporting an unexpected rise in March in its global growth surprise index:
According to UBS that small little uptick at the end of the chart is the index’s most impressive three-week gain since last August.
Quote du jour
From Dealbook’s collection of financial comments by US Congressmen.
Related link:
Under the Big Top, Washington Style – Dealbook
Geithner not wrong, simply misunderstood
Poor old Tim Geithner, he can’t seem to earn the trust of the markets whatever he does. Wednesday saw the US Treasury secretary rattle forex traders specifically with comments about China’s proposals on special drawing rights.
Trouble in Treasuries?
Well, it’s not quite as epic as Wednesday’s gilt failure but the US Treasury’s record $34bn five-year auction was met with rather subdued demand late yesterday.
In fact, the Fed had to offer a higher yield to attract buyers — 1.849 per cent instead of the 1.801 per cent expected.
Further reading
Elsewhere on Thursday,
- Gordon ‘Brezhnev’ Brown, now starring on YouTube.
- Gaming the rescue plan.
- Why the Geithner plan (really) won’t work.
- (Increasingly) worthless MBAs.
- Is there anything left to buy?
- The (small) future of small hedge funds.