February, 2011
Going Dutch, with NYSE and D Börse
BUT WILL NYSE COME FIRST IN THE NAME?
Ahem, sadly for Chuck Schumer, we don’t know yet. NYSE Euronext and Deutsche Börse just unveiled their vision for a Premier Global Exchange Group without quite giving it anything so important as a name:
Good books, bad books at the banks
Spotted on the Financial Accounting Standards Board website:
FASB may have backed off mark-to-market accounting for banking assets, but the US accounting body might still decide to make some significant changes to the way banks provision for loan losses (you know,
Nokia’s rebel alliance [updated]
They’re calling it Plan B, which isn’t nearly as fun. This has been doing the rounds in recent days and we offer it in light of debate on the deal with Microsoft:
We are a group of nine young Nokia shareholders.
Markets Live transcript 15 Feb 2011
Markets Live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:31 on 15 Feb 2011. Participants in this chat were: Neil Hume, FT bryce.elder NHGood morning NHHola NHBonjour
Pimco – the giant shifts weight
* Money has become the economic and political wedge for profound changes in American society.
* Perhaps the most deceptive policy tool to lessen debt loads is the “negative” or exceedingly low real interest rate that central banks impose on savers and debt holders.
Mervyn explains himself
What he actually said:
Dear Chancellor,
As I have described in previous open letters, three factors can account for the current high level of inflation: the rise in VAT relative to a year ago, the continuing consequences of the fall in sterling in late 2007 and 2008,
Wm Morrison shops online
Wm Morrison, the UK’s fourth biggest supermarket group, has taken its first step into the world of e-commerce.
Sadly, it’s not buying Webvan 2.0 Ocado but Kiddicare, an online retailer of baby products based in a 160,000 square foot warehouse in Peterborough.
Nomura calls the end of risk on/risk off
The last time Nomura talked ‘risk on/risk off’ they thought it had ruptured.
Now they think the market phenomenon — which had seen correlations intensify in recent (QEased and crisis-ed) years — might be ruined for good.
Dear Chancellor…
Time to get the quill out again, Governor.
From the Office for National Statistics on Tuesday morning:
So, that’s the fifth consecutive quarter that UK CPI inflation has remained above target and the 10th time Bank of England chief Mervyn King will have been forced to write to the Chancellor and explain why:
Fir Tree Capital’s (Anglo Irish) beef
Investors in a distressed Irish bank are suing the company for merging with …
… another distressed Irish bank.
US hedge fund Fir Tree Capital, which invested in $200m worth of Anglo Irish debt back in 2005,
On China’s massaged inflation
China’s January consumer prices index (CPI) came in lower than expected — cue Monday accusations that China was tinkering with its inflation figures.
The below, for instance, from the Telegraph:
…
Further reading
Elsewhere on Tuesday,
- Some ultra-short indices.
- For big bonuses, go east, young banker
- ‘Tiger mothers’and the history of the Chinese examination system.
- One man’s Google search is different from another’s.
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Tuesday’s FT,
Gideon Rachman: Reflections on the Revolution in Egypt
Wael Ghonim has been appointed by the US media as the face of the Egyptian revolution,
Further further reading
For the commute home, and to help plan your next financial disaster country tour,
- Big news out of US bankruptcy court that a judge has ruled that MERS cannot legally transfer mortgages (HT Ritholtz).
User fees and CFTC funding
On page 1202 of 1364 in the appendix to the White House’s FY 2012 Budget is a Valentine offering to the CFTC (H/T Bloomberg):
Additionally, the Budget proposes to fund CFTC non-enforcement activities through user fees.
Private equity: tilting and growing (again)
Having duly warned you of the risks that come with private equity investing in emerging markets, it’s time to pass along EMPEA’s full-year 2010 statistics for EM investment and fundraising.
If the subject matter doesn’t get your juices flowing the way it does ours,
Consumer surveys don’t predict inflation
Time to unburden ourselves of a long-withheld complaint ahead of this Thursday’s release of the January CPI numbers.
Here’s a chart comparing 12-month inflation expectations in the Reuters/University of Michigan consumer confidence survey (updated last Friday) against actual 12-month changes in the CPI (both headline and core):
The Justice League
Justice sold for £900m on Monday:
Justice, a British Virgin Islands incorporated company founded by Nicolas Berggruen, Martin E. Franklin and William A. Ackman, is pleased to announce the results of its successful IPO by way of a placing of Ordinary Shares (the “Placing”)…
Household deleveraging continues, sort of
From the FRBNY’s Q4 report on household debt and credit:
We recently commented at length about the declining savings rate and the consumer-spending-led rebound that was taking place, even as households continued to delever.
The FY2012 “Budget”
The White House’s FY2012 budget is out:
This is, of course, just a proposal — it’s now up to Congress to amend, appropriate and approve. That’s the theory, anyway; we’re still waiting for that FY2011 budget and the next extension for a continuing resolution to,
What Ireland’s secret liquidity costs
By this point, we know a few things about how Irish banks are getting emergency liquidity assistance from their national central bank (even though officially, this is all rather hush hush).
The ‘penalty’ rates on this assistance,
China’s vanishing forests?
… We like CF for two major reasons. First, CF has a strong competitive edge, brought by the experience of its management team. CF was among the first wave of private companies that entered into China’s forestry industry and has successfully developed during the past 7 years,
Markets Live transcript 14 Feb 2011
Markets Live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:23 on 14 Feb 2011. Participants in this chat were: Neil Hume, FT bryce.elder
NHMorning Rabble
NHsorry we are running a bit late
A tale of two tech companies
As the share price of Nokia continues to sink in the wake of Friday’s distinctly underwhelming tie-up with Microsoft…
… And ARM Holdings continues its seemingly inexorable march higher:
A couple of factors are powering the chip designer’s advance on Monday morning.
Japan’s savings rate about to go negative, Goldman says
Japan has just announced that its national savings rate rose to 5 per cent in 2009, from 2.2 per cent in 2008. But already some analysts are predicting a sharp reversal in the trend. Goldman Sachs’ Chiwoong Lee thinks the rate is about to turn negative.
China as global No 2 – now it’s official
It may sound similar to our earlier post, last August — but this time, it’s really, really official, even “historic” as some US media reports claim. China has decisively and definitively become the world’s No.