June, 2009
[The Stanford Series] Judge rules Sir Allen Stanford must stay in jail pending trial
A federal judge on Tuesday ruled that Sir Allen Stanford, the Texan businessmen indicted on 21 counts relating to an alleged $7bn Ponzi scheme, will have to remain in custody until his trial.
The judge,
Lex: Markets’ first half
The second quarter may well have marked the bottom. But it could also descend into infamy as the most deceptive three months in economic memory. Certainly all the talk of a second Great Depression has vanished.
The other emerging Europe crisis
The real-estate consultants BH2 have come out with an interesting take on a much less written about currency crisis potentially facing four countries in the west Balkans: Serbia, Croatia, Macedonia and Albania.
Wanted: Superhero to save the world
For anyone counting on China to pull the world out of recession this little graph from RBC Capital Markets might contextualise those hopes:
Related link:
China’s fake recovery – FT Alphaville
Cigarettes: good for government coffers
So says Philip Morris, aka Altria, aka one of the world’s largest tobacco companies.
Michelle Leder of footnoted.org has the scoop, which she found by perusing a 74-page company slideshow filed with the SEC.
US consumers not so confident in June, Conference Board says
Despite the prognostications of CNBC talking head Dennis “Uncork the Cristal” Kneale, US consumers aren’t feeling all that positive about the health of the world’s largest economy.
As Bloomberg reported on Tuesday,
Somebody call the SFO
Some grim news for investors with Keydata Investment Services has just broken.
On Tuesday afternoon, administrators PricewaterhouseCoopers gave warning that “certain issues” had come to light – issues which mean a sale of the company as a whole may not be possible.
Lex: The return of growth capital
Private equity firms are continuing their evolution into “alternative asset managers” by returning to their roots while simultaneously branching out into other areas such as mezzanine loans, property and infrastructure.
Structuring yourself for failure
Talk about aiming high, Bank of England.
The central bank’s deputy governor for financial stability Paul Tucker has given a speech on Tuesday about the social responsibilities of the banking sector and associated reforms.
Lunch Wrap
On FT Alphaville on Tuesday morning,
- UK GDP fall/fail … biggest ever.
- Investors go moo.
- Bitchin’ over Bernanke.
- Yell faces reality.
- The notional Taleb.
- More reward for failure.
Annals of unlikely financial forecasters, summer reading edition
Back in 2006 BBC petrol-head pundit Jeremy Clarkson wrote a book called And Another Thing: Vol. two: The World According to Clarkson. In it he refers to the work of Niall Ferguson, the writings of whom he appears very much inspired by.
Why not 666 years?
Capital Chronicle makes the point, on the back of the Madoff sentencing, that either the US Justice system knows more than the rest of us about the demographic time bomb threatening pensions or its sentencing system may be a touch detached from reality.
Markets live transcript 30 Jun 2009
Markets live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:09 on 30 Jun 2009. Participants in this chat were: Paul Murphy, FT (PM) Neil Hume, FT (NH) PM:Hi there PM:11.03 NH:Morning
Investors go moo
From Bloomberg:
June 29 (Bloomberg) — Investors are moving in lockstep like never before, driving up stocks, commodities and emerging markets and risking a replay of last year, when they all plunged the most since World War II.
Yell faces reality
What’s that we can hear from the Reading headquarters of Yell? Why, it is the unmistakable sound of the penny finally dropping.
Here’s Tuesday’s “shock” statement from the heavily indebted directories company.
UK GDP fall/fail … biggest ever
Year on year, that is: down 4.9 per cent. The UK economy has never before shrunk so much so fast.
2009 Q1 GDP fell 2.4 per cent, according to figures just out, making it the biggest quarter-on-quarter fall since 1958.
Sovereign CDS: Oh the irony of it all
It’s a sign of the times that Markit, which compiles the iTraxx and CDX European and US corporate CDS indexes, on Monday announced the launch of the first global family of sovereign credit default swap indices.
The notional Taleb
Remember the clash between Janet Tavakoli and Nassim Taleb over a profile of the Black Swan man in GQ?
Tavakoli, of Tavakoli Structured Finance, highlighted a seeming error in the GQ article, which was penned by novelist Will Self.
Bitchin’ over Bernanke
Along with Gordon Brown, Simon Cowell, Victoria Beckham and all those wonderful, “love-to-hate” figures, the chairman of the US Federal Reserve is an easy and tempting target for all manner of slings and arrows.
More reward for failure
Now here’s something we don’t get to see every day, a chief executive carrying the can for very nearly bringing a large listed company to its knees through a series of ill-judged acquisitions at the top of the market.
Collateral damage at the ECB
Willem Buiter presents some interesting thoughts regarding the ECB’s one-year liquidity operation last week. What particularly strikes us is the following paragraph (our emphasis):
You may think that this implies that the cost to the banks of borrowing from the Eurosystem for a year – 1.00% – does not imply a subsidy,
Further reading
Elsewhere on Tuesday,
- The paradox of strategic defaults.
- Madoff: 150 years is not enough.
-Western pension funds love stocks too much.
- Inflation and you: partners in freedom.
- “Australia – I like it.
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Tuesday’s FT,
John Gapper: Victims have their moment but the suffering goes on
It was, taken literally, an absurd jail sentence: one of more than life, one reaching well into the grave.
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Tuesday,
- Nationwide says house prices rose by 0.9 per cent in June — statement.
- Yell Group starts refinancing, Q1 revenue to be 20 per cent lower — statement.
- Aminex announces placing to raise $11.5m and open offer to raise $3m — statement.
Madoff sentenced to 150 years
Cheers erupted in a Manhattan federal courthouse on Monday as Bernard Madoff was sentenced to 150 years in prison, the maximum possible jail term, for running a $65bn Ponzi scheme that devastated thousands of investors.
Enterprise in $3.3bn merger with Teppco
Enterprise Products Partners, a publicly traded oil and natural gas energy partnership, said on Monday it would merge with Teppco Partners in a $3.3bn deal to create a lower-cost pipeline and logistics group.
Porsche rejects VW’s stake bid
The tug-of-war over Porsche intensified on Monday when it rejected a bid from Volkswagen worth up to €4bn ($5.6bn) for half the German sports carmaker, saying the offer had been sent to the wrong address.
GM close to Opel deal with RHJ
General Motors has stepped up negotiations with rival suitors to offload a stake in Opel, its European business, and could sign at least one MoU this week as talks with Magna International, the preferred bidder,
Buyout firms eye AIG’s Taiwan unit
Carlyle, Primus and MBK Partners may seek to buy Nan Shan Life Insurance, the Taiwanese unit of US insurer AIG, reports Bloomberg. KKR, Affinity Equity Partners, Cathay and Chinatrust have also asked AIG for information about the sale and may take part in a first round of bids scheduled for July 3.
Activists hit Towers-Watson deal
Corporate governance activists decried a merger of Watson Wyatt Worldwide and Towers Perrin, saying conflicts of interests could arise if executive compensation consultants are hired by the same managers to advise on human resources issues,