February 9th, 2012
Further further reading
For the commute home,
- The labour market in swing states has improved faster than in other states.
- Barry Ritholz on why @GSElevator is a fake.
- How to talk about the economy: a guide for elected officials and journalists.
Incremental housing help
The details of the foreclosure settlement this morning mostly reflected what had been reported late last night, and here was the final take from the FT’s Shahien Nasiripour and Kara Scannell:
Under the agreement, Bank of America, Wells Fargo, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Ally Financial will be forced to improve their mortgage procedures,
The foreclosure settlement
Click to open the generic state form (Word doc) sent out to US state attorney generals earlier on Thursday…
Thursday…
The main bits:
Under the agreement, the five servicers have agreed to a $25 billion penalty under a joint state-national settlement structure.
Here be Draghi, on ECB collateral [updated]
Some interesting points about the ECB’s expansion of the collateral it will accept for funding at February’s three-year LTRO, plus a bit on its Greek bonds, from ECB President Mario Draghi at pixel time…
Bank of England ups QE (and tweaks its gilts)
In the light of its most recent economic projections, the Committee judged that the weak near-term growth outlook and associated downward pressure from economic slack meant that, without further monetary stimulus,
Markets Live transcript 9 Feb 2012
Markets Live chat transcript for the chat ending at 12:09 on 9 Feb 2012. Participants in this chat were: Paul Murphy Bryce Elder/FT PMYo! PMWelcome to Markets Live PMBryce is here
Albert the (financial) Populist
Albert Edwards is with Terry Smith on this one. If Shredded Fred must lose his knighthood, then certain other players in this game of bubble and crunch need to forego an honour or two.
But while Smith has focused on Sir Alan Greenspan,
Another IB “surprises” on the downside…
And so to the harsh news amongst the “key messages” from Credit Suisse, which on Thursday followed both UBS and Deutsche Bank in reporting rather softer Q4 numbers than anyone seemed to be expecting…
John Paulson vs Hartford Financial
You’ll have to imagine how it sounded.
But here’s an interesting demonstration of John Paulson at work… stepping onto Hartford Financial’s earnings conference call to lambast the insurer’s performance.
Optimistic forecast of the day, Greek GDP edition
Some detail on the draft agreement Greece’s political leaders want to submit to their international saviours (assuming they can agree to pension cuts).
Via Bloomberg (emphasis ours):
Further financing may be needed for the country as the economy contracts at a faster pace than originally estimated.
Further reading
Elsewhere on Thursday,
- No, banks shouldn’t be in the tail risk-selling business.
- Hempton on Diamond Foods: “There is seldom only one cockroach…”
- Economic recovery complacency?
- Oil &
Pink picks
Comment, analysis, and other offerings from Thursday’s FT,
John Gapper: Don’t put venture capital at risk
Venture capital is now on the same threshold that both banking and private equity crossed before,
Snap news
Breaking pre-market news on Thursday,
– Robust first half from Diageo – statement
– Credit Suisse moves into the red in Q4 – Bloomberg
– Strategy update from BG Group – statement – along with