March, 2010
Further reading
Elsewhere on Monday,
- Are Chinese statistics manipulated? A World Bank-er says no.
- Wine, not cider, hit hardest by Darling’s tax rise.
- Taleb is on an internet diet. Side effect: ‘harmony with [his] genes’.
Pink picks
Wolfgang Münchau: Europe has resolved nothing over Greece
Another knife-edge summit in Brussels, another late-night agreement, followed by self-congratulatory poses from European leaders: the “emergency funding agreement” for Greece sounded like a significant deal on Thursday night.
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Monday,
- Sports Direct may increase offer for Blacks Leisure, which says it has not breached selective disclosure rules – statement and statement.
- Desire Petroleum says reservoir quality at Liz prospect poor – statement.
FTfm on AV
Highlights from Monday’s FTfm.
Jury out on top fund performance
Cass Business School and Aviva both found clues to future performance in historical data, but unfortunately, their findings conflict
The healthcare party is over – now comes the (accounting) hangover
It was a long fight but on Tuesday President Obama signed the historic healthcare reform legislation into law promising coverage for 32m more Americans at the modest price of $950bn over 10 years, the FT’s US Business Correspondent Jeremy Lemer writes.
Argentina’s sanguine approach to its looming debt swap
Ahead of a major financial event for Argentina — a $20bn debt swap that would herald a new era in its tangled relationship with the capital markets — FT correspondent Jude Webber offers insight into the mood of the country’s finance secretary.
It’s official: Ambac’s CDS triggered
It’s the event Ambac thought would never, ever come:
The International Swaps and Derivatives Association, Inc. (ISDA) announced that its Americas Credit Derivatives Determinations Committee resolved that a bankruptcy credit event has occurred in respect of Ambac Assurance Corporation,
A UK power desurge
In the UK, it is a well know fact that power demand surges at the end of every episode of Eastenders, Britain’s best-loved TV show.
The reason that happens — for those unfamiliar with British custom — is because millions of people simultaneously rush to switch on their kettles to make a cup of tea.
‘It is not permitted to hold discussions or investigations on the Google topic’
How seriously is Beijing treating Google’s decision to stop censoring the search results displayed to users on the mainland?
Here’s a hint: the Chinese government issued a series of directives to the country’s media regarding how they may portray Google’s gambit;
Golomt: or, the meaning of emerging market equities
Golomt, for the uninitiated, is a Mongolian bank whose CEO announced plans on Friday to make an IPO abroad between 2012 and 2013. Hong Kong is favoured, according to a (Chinese) Reuters interview.
Yes,
Statistic abuse, Moscow edition
Believe it or not — with Greece and China having been suspected at various points of economy with the truth, yet another sovereign state has been accused of fiddling its statistics.
This time round it is Russia.
Welcome to the brave new world of insider trading investigations
Listen up hedgies, traders and investment bankers: you are being very closely watched indeed.
Regulators on both side of the Atlantic appear to have adopted a shock-and-awe campaign as far as cracking down on insider trading is concerned.
Foreclosure or forgiveness?
Absent a thorough review of HAMP and its goals, the program risks helping few, and for the rest, merely spreading out the foreclosure crisis over the course of several years…
- Neil Barofsky, Sigtarp,
Greece and the markets, post-bailout plan
It’s not a bailout — honest, according to the European leaders who reached an accord on Thursday over a ‘financing plan’ to help Greece, in case it can’t raise funds through the market in the near future.
More on that Hamp-lified moral hazard
The below is a very timely — and thought-provoking — data set, given that things are once again heating up in the realm of US mortgage modification post-Bank of America’s principal reduction plan.
Behold,
US debt saturation *alert*
There was an interesting chart put up the other week on Nathan’s Economic Edge blog (H/T Chris Cook).
We’re not sure how accurate its assertion is. However, if what it implies is true, the consequences are worrying.
Markets Live transcript 26 Mar 2010
Markets Live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:12 on 26 Mar 2010. Participants in this chat were: Neil Hume, FT Bryce Elder NHGood morning NHand welcome to another edition of Markets Live
Putting up the paywall
Murdoch said he was going to charge readers for online news, and here’s how he plans do it.
Presenting The Times and The Sunday Times paywall.
From a News International press release issued on Friday:
Debunking subprime contagion
Flashback alert!
Fears raised that subprime crisis could spread – The London Times, April 2007
Sub-prime crisis could spread to other markets, IMF warns – The Independent, April 2007
The credit crisis spreads to Europe – Time Magazine,
Further reading
Elsewhere on Friday,
- Yves Smith is not a Big Short fan.
- Let’s vilify Deutsche Bank.
- “Is this a turning point?”
- Mankiw foresees record taxes.
- “Hamp is even worse than you thought.”
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Friday’s FT,
Philip Stephens: Merkel’s myopia reopens Europe’s German question
Angela Merkel’s hostility to a eurozone rescue package for Greece slots into a bigger picture. Europe is haunted again by a German question,
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Friday,
- Phorm Group announces commercial deployment in Brazil – statement.
- Siemens expects to post robust profits again in fiscal Q2 – webcast.
- ITV completes sale of Friends Reunited for DC Thomson for £25m – statement.
SocGen 0, fired investment banker €12.5m
Société Générale, France’s second-largest bank, has lost its case against an investment banker who was claiming more than €12.5m (£11.3m) after his employment was terminated at the start of the credit crunch,
Investment banks, munis and derivatives, redux
Wall Street must be wondering whether the returns on selling derivatives to municipalities (and say, Greece) are really worth the headache.
In the latest development in the saga of investment banks v munis in re derivatives,
Google v China: it’s all about free trade
Google’s decision to pull out of China was not motivated by anything so high-falutin’ as human rights. As the New York Times reported (emphasis ours):
Alan Davidson, director of public policy for Google,
CDS report: Dubai, Greece push spreads tighter
After a weak start, European credit indices finished the day tighter as encouraging news on sovereigns supported spreads. The Markit iTraxx Europe index was trading around 78bp, about 1.5bp tighter than yesterday’s close,
You say ‘potato’, I say ‘frequent flyer miles’
Forget Octopussy, Greeks and bat phones. Never mind Blue Horseshoes and Anacott Steel. The latest lingo in (alleged) insider trading is all about vegetables and frequent flyer miles.
Late on Wednesday,
The curse of 105
Any numerologists in the house? Because the number 105 seems to be popping up with alarming frequency in cases of alleged wrongdoing.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing people familiar with the matter,
The Greek bailout, according to Paris and Berlin [updated]
Breaking on Thursday afternoon in Europe: Franco-German accord on the terms of a ‘financing plan’ for Greece has been announced by the French president’s office.
Via Reuters:
RTRS-SARKOZY AND MERKEL
Spanish risk: let’s get regional
Ah, the intricacies of Spanish debt instruments. As fears over Spain’s sovereign risk ebb and flow, BarCap analysts have weighed up the various asset classes on offer in its debt markets. The results should intrigue Spanish risk-watchers.