April 15th, 2010
New York Times disappears up itself
This is what happens when two “marquee columnists” fall out – a readers’ editor is called in to adjudicate.
I think the right thing to do is to simply acknowledge that, in trying to quickly summarize Krugman’s nuanced position,
The (alleged) minus $50bn man
His name is Alberto Cribiore. He’s a former private equity practitioner and he sat on the board of Merrill Lynch before it was sold to Bank of America.
According to a Fortune piece by House of Cards author William Cohan,
Phone a Philhellenic Fund friend — not
Greece announced on Thursday that it will ask for talks with the IMF and European institutions on the rescue plan they agreed — but did not activate — last weekend.
Is this the fabled activation? Well,
Stop the Chinese steamroller, I want to get off
When your economy grows by almost 12 per cent in a quarter compared to a year ago, surely the question to ask is less if it’s overheating — but rather how much.
In which case, let’s have a look at what analysts said on Thursday about how China can tighten before some nasty asset bubbles pop — across investment and lending,
Putting the ‘E’ into exchange-traded fund in Europe
Happy tenth anniversary, European exchange-traded funds. Prepare for a blow-out.
Blackrock’s ETF division iShares marked this week’s big birthday with the publication of its ETF landscape report, predicting a robust future for ETF asset growth in Europe.
Markets Live transcript 15 Apr 2010
Markets Live chat transcript for the chat ending at 11:12 on 15 Apr 2010. Participants in this chat were: Neil Hume, FT Bryce Elder NHGood morning NHand welcome to Markets Live
[Ireland's Bad Bank] Operatic structured finance
Like the plot-line of a tragic libretto, Opera Finance CMH ’s good fortune has taken a sudden turn for the worse.
Cue the ballad.
Opera CMH is one of the few commercial mortgage-backed securities (CMBS) deals with significant exposure to Irish real estate — including shopping centres in Dublin.
The return of the “other” Northern Rock
It’s amazing what you can find on the intraweb. Take this cached page from London-based PR Fishburn Hedges on an assignment for buy-to-let mortgage lender Paragon:
The challenge
Paragon raises its funds in the wholesale market,
The Greek debt merry-go-round goes round again
Here we go again.
The 10-year Greek bond – German bund spread widened to 426 basis points on Thursday.
That’s up from 406bps on Wednesday — and nearing an 11-year high:
On the credit default swap front,
The end of the euro
What’s in the water at Morgan Stanley? Its credit and equity strategists are negative on the market and now the bank’s economists are talking about the break up of the euro. And you thought FT Alphaville was bearish.
From Level I to Level III, the myth of fair value
Fair value –or mark-to-market — accounting is back in the news.
The IASB and FASB, the European and US accounting standards boards, are reportedly grappling over global accounting convergence because of the issue. From the FT:
Chinese consumer credit binge begins
We’ve just seen Chinese GDP rise 11.9 per cent in Q1.
And urban house prices increased 11.7 per cent in March.
And retail sales are up 17 per cent.
So here’s another dramatic Chinese statistic to throw into the mix,
Further reading
Elsewhere on Thursday,
- Housing finance reform: advise Uncle Sam.
- Plus: be your own Greek finance minister.
- The rise of Spain’s economía sumergida.
- For once, it’s not Lehman’s fault.
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Thursday’s FT,
John Gapper: A short story of a star hedge fund
Perhaps politicians will shift their attention to another possible subprime culprit, an Illinois-based hedge fund whose founder,
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Thursday,
- Dana Petroleum says makes significant gas discovery offshore UK – statement.
- Rio Tinto says most of operations ran at full capacity in Q1- statement.
- Roche Q1 sales beat forecasts,