August, 2011
Further further reading
For the commute home, which is always rated AAA,
- Rick Perry’s jobs record examined, reexamined, and re-reexamined.
- Thoughts on the municipal bond market’s new regulator.
- The gap widens between the best and worst PE funds.
Shadow banking – from Giffen goods to Triffin troubles
Here’s a chart for anyone interested in the origins of the so-called deposit crisis:
It comes from the widely cited recent IMF working paper by Zoltan Pozsar and suggests there are too few banks to meet the demand for safe places to put burgeoning institutional cash pools.
El-Erian: What to make of the Franco-German Summit
Mohamed El-Erian, chief executive and co-chief investment officer at PIMCO, briefly responds to Tuesday’s news out of Paris.
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Judging from the press conference, France has now aligned itself with a Germany that is increasingly,
Eurobonds – not now but not never
We’re calling it a victory for Jacques Delors.
Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy finished their bilateral summit on Tuesday afternoon and announced several new measures, some substantial, some speculative,
On Rick Perry being a loony
Texas Governor Rick Perry’s considered perspective on Fed chairman Ben Bernanke at a time of national economic crisis:
If this guy prints more money between now and the election, I don’t know what y’all would do to him in Iowa,
The Samsung skirmish in the patent war
Speaking of a patent war in the smartphone industry…
Compared to the massive Google-Motorola deal, Samsung’s ongoing battle with Apple is more like a skirmish, but it probably shows just how disruptive Google’s strategy could be,
[Modern Football Finance] Manchester United Pte Ltd
Interesting story breaking on IFR this Tuesday lunchtime:
RTRS-PREMIER LEAGUE CHAMPIONS MANCHESTER UNITED PLANS $1 BLN IPO IN SINGAPORE BY YEAR-END – IFR
English Premier League football champions Manchester United plans an initial public offering in Singapore by the end of the year,
Markets Live transcript 16 Aug 2011
Markets Live chat transcript for the chat ending at 11:30 on 16 Aug 2011. Participants in this chat were: Neil Hume, FT bryce.elder NHbonjour rabble NHwelcome to markets live
S&P death cross
We aren’t big fans of technical analysis, but a lot of people are — which is why the following is generating a lot of interest in the City.
It’s called a death cross and it’s triggered when the 50-day moving average crosses below the 200-day average.
Dear Mr Chancellor [updated]
It’s letter writing time again at Threadneedle Street.
In truth there’s not much to see in Tuesday’s inflation report from the Office for National Statistics.
Yes, the CPI number is little bit higher than consensus (4.3 per cent) but the RPI number is bang in line with expectations.
What’s inside Pandora’s box – redux
Why, it’s an investigation.
RTRS-DANISH FSA SAYS TO REPORT NORDEA BANK DENMARK TO POLICE IN CONNECTION WITH INVESTMENT ANALYSIS ON PANDORA
RTRS-DANISH FSA SAYS NORDEA BANK DENMARK FAILED TO INFORM ABOUT ITS FINANCIAL INTEREST IN PANDORA IN CONNECTION WITH AN INVESTMENT ANALYSIS
Along with Goldman Sachs,
Kaputt
And now you know the German for “stall speed”.
Headline changed to better reflect the effects of a slowdown in a major export economy on global growth… (see also Hong Kong’s reversion into recession in the second quarter as an indication of troubles facing world exports.
Further reading
Elsewhere on Tuesday,
- QE is treason, apparently.
- Eliminate the Republican Party.
- Going Japanese.
- US lending conditions – tight.
- Oh! what a lovely war!
- Brace for the Euro car crash.
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Tuesday’s FT,
Max Hastings: The west’s crisis of honest leaders
“Cometh the hour, cometh the man“ is a foolish cliché: history is replete with dramas that caused nations to look expectantly at the door,
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Tuesday,
- German GDP slows more than expected in the second quarter, dropping to 0.1 per cent — statement.
- Straumann cuts guidance; cites impact of Swiss franc — statement.
Paulson’s BofA-Citi-Wells switcheroo
John Paulson’s quarterly 13F filing was released late on Monday and the headlines make for interesting reading. We may go through it in more detail later but we thought this portfolio change-up was worth noting right away:
Further further reading
For the commute home, where the only scoops are found in a tub of Ben & Jerry’s,
- The decline of the M&A scoop is not to be lamented.
- The bonds that turned to dust.
- The ripple effects of Google’s Motorola deal.
Desperate measures for *really* desperate times
Even from this correspondent’s vacation spot on a rustic Swedish island did he notice how carefully the FOMC’s last statement was scrutinised.
And frankly, we’re bored of reading about the potential efficacy of the ideas floated by the Fed as available tools to combat a protracted downturn.
SNB shows some pegleg
SNB: “Leave our dear Swissie alone. Seriously, leave it alone.”
Investors: ”But we don’t know where else to hide.”
SNB: “Right then, you’ll have to pay for it.”
Investors: “How much have you got?”
More earnings confusion
Monday’s WSJ gives lengthy treatment to the scramble among analysts to work out whether stocks are cheap considering the uncertainty about the path of US corporate earnings.
There’s plenty of disagreement among the sell-siders and cheapness is itself a hazy concept.
Sino-Forest’s confusing earnings report
Sino-Forest, how we’ve missed thee.
Everyone’s favourite Chinese-Canadian timber company released its Q2 2011 earnings on Monday morning. Its share price rose 8 per cent immediately after Canadian markets opened and was up nearly 4 per cent at pixel time.
Celebrity knife catching with Lord Sugar
In the next episode Donald Trump backs up the truck and buys BofA.
The price of JGB-isation
Japanese history lesson by Citi rates strategist Mark Schofield — probably you can guess the subject:
It is tough to just look at the price action in Japan as the policy process was so long and drawn out.
Presenting the Google phone
Breaking Google news on Monday lunchtime:
RTRS-GOOGLE TO ACQUIRE MOTOROLA MOBILITY
RTRS-GOOGLE INC – DEAL FOR $40.00 PER SHARE IN CASH
RTRS-GOOGLE INC – DEAL FOR ABOUT $12.5 BLN
RTRS-GOOGLE INC – SAYS MOTOROLA MOBILITY WILL REMAIN A LICENSEE OF ANDROID AND ANDROID WILL REMAIN OPEN
RTRS-GOOGLE INC – SAYS GOOGLE WILL RUN MOTOROLA MOBILITY AS A SEPARATE BUSINESS.
Markets Live transcript 15 Aug 2011
Markets Live chat transcript for the chat ending at 11:24 on 15 Aug 2011. Participants in this chat were: Neil Hume, FT bryce.elder NHBonjour rabble NHwelcome to Markets Live
Le poison de la rumeur
Predictable really.
The investigation into the Societe Generale sell-off looks like it could quickly descend into farce.
Over the weekend Le Monde was forced to defend itself — in a front page comment no less — against accusations that a 12-part fictional series titled,
A grinding credit crunch in the periphery
Some more on bank funding stresses, which are one of the main reasons for the recent sell-off in European bank stocks NOT the activities of nefarious short-sellers.
It’s from Morgan Stanley’s Huw van Steenis,