Gwen Robinson
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and offerings from Wednesday’s FT,
Martin Wolf: Managing eurozone fragility
Why is Spain paying higher interest rates on its government debt than the UK?, asks the FT columnist. The answer to is illuminating:
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Tuesday’s FT,
Ahmed Rashid: Now to break al-Qaeda’s franchise
The colonial conquests of Muslim societies by the west were followed by freedom struggles and,
Japan’s ‘stunning’ stats: Yosano’s new nightmare
As variously predicted, the “3/11 effect” on Japan’s economy is starting to kick in. And true to warnings that the impact could be far worse than feared, the latest batch of data is reasonably horrible.
Further reading
Elsewhere on Thursday,
- Bernanke “wimps out”.
- Why is enough never enough?
- Japan’s energy crisis, not as bad as feared…
- .. But the ‘Cool Biz’ campaign starts early.
- The stock market is not the economy.
Further reading
Elsewhere on Wednesday,
- Fuh-fuh-fundy-mentalism.
- 20 questions for Ben Bernanke.
- And a few more crowd-pleasing questions….
- The 25 worst mistakes in history.
- Shiller vs Seigel on stock market valuation.
Further reading
Elsewhere on Tuesday,
- Wall Street’s dubious fiscal frenzy?
- Volatility probability.
- How to win at Goldman: work hard, very hard.
- But even then, the era of Goldman exceptionalism could be over…
Further reading, Easter edition
Elsewhere over the Easter long weekend,
- A bunny thing happened: an oral history of the Playboy clubs.
- The great post-Easter chicken cull, or the plight of egg producers.
- Where have all the brokers gone?
- ‘Too big to fail’ pays off – for bankers’ salaries.
What was that about Chernobyl?
Amid large aftershocks and fears of nuclear contamination rocking eastern Japan on a daily basis, it was the last thing anyone in the country needed to hear on Tuesday: that the crisis at the crippled
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings in Wednesday’s FT,
Martin Wolf: the radical right and the US state
What does the rise of libertarianism portend for the future of the US?, asks the FT columnist.
Japan, nuclear accident upgrades, economic downgrades
It was a sobering start to Tuesday, after an equally sobering Monday evening punctuated by strong tremors in Tokyo and the northeast, followed by yet another big aftershock and many more nasty tremors throughout much of Tuesday.
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Tuesday’s FT,
Philip Stephens: The banks get away with it, again
There are a couple of things to say about Britain’s banks, says the FT columnist. They still pose a serious threat to the nation’s long-term stability and prosperity.
What Japan’s post-quake data say so far
Facts and figures on the Japanese economy have dribbled out since the March 11 disasters. The latest data release, on Monday morning, dealt with February figures and showed that Japanese core machinery orders fell a larger-than-expected 2.3 per cent in February from January.
Quake watch: More rock’n'roll in Japan
Another day another quake… At least, it felt a bit like that when, exactly one month after the March 11 quake and tsunami devastated northeastern Japan, a magnitude 7.1 earthquake hit the northeast yet again and rocked Tokyo at 5.25pm on Monday.
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and other offerings from Monday’s FT,
Clive Crook: America’s ‘comic-book’ shutdown squabble
The world had better start paying attention to the US government’s inability to govern,
Further reading
Elsewhere on Friday,
- The foolishness of crowds.
- A big week for Bob Dylan.
- And a very big week for Jamie Dimon.
- Lessons on the Fibonacci sequence.
- Who wins, who loses from a US government shutdown.
Quake watch: Japan hit yet again
Just as anxious, sleep-deprived and quake-traumatised eastern Japan was beginning to relax – just a little: a fresh earthquake struck the already ravaged region of Tohoku and rocked Tokyo at 11:32pm local time,
BoJ: A more focused ‘QE3′, Japanese style
It might signify the evolution of what some have already dubbed ‘QE3, Japanese-style’ into something more limited but focused on disaster relief and reconstruction. The effects, however, may be felt in markets around the world.
Further reading
Elsewhere on Thursday,
- Atlas shrugged, and so did I.
- America’s budget crisis – in a nutshell.
- Ryan vs Obama: (US budget) chart porn.
- Stiglitz: Fukushima, and gambling with the planet.
ASX/SGX, the fantasy turns into a nightmare
“Keep your money mate,” was the way Heard on the Street put it in response to Australian Treasurer Wayne Swan’s decision to effectively block Singapore Exchange’s A$8.4bn ($8.7bn) takeover offer of its local rival ASX.
Further reading
Elsewhere on Wednesday,
- Top 10 deal premiums of the decade.
- Murkiness in corporate disclosures: ‘All a matter of materiality’.
- Nice ‘lobagolas’ excite Citi traders.
- The not-so-strange acquisitions of nuclear power companies.
Five reasons the yen will strengthen
Since March 11, analysts in Tokyo have widely predicted that the Japan’s triple disasters – earthquake, tsunami and nuclear plant crisis – would heighten risk averseness among Japanese investors.
Indeed,
Further reading
Elsewhere on Tuesday,
- Meet the new Goldman, same as the old…
- Confessions of an investor.
- Buffett’s ruthlessness is oddly absent.
- Deals, deals, deals.
- How to say ‘stress’ in German.
The hidden slide of Japanese business sentiment
The Bank of Japan’s quarterly Tankan business survey is seen as a vital guide to corporate Japan’s expectations and more importantly, a key indicator of spending and investment plans.
It is also, as MoneySupply once noted,
Further reading
Elsewhere on Monday,
- Nuns question (Goldman’s) ‘God’s work’.
- “Facebook is the largest news organization ever”.
- The market designers.
- 60 Minutes on foreclosure fraud: still plenty to see.
Tepco confusion
The latest kerfuffle about the future of Tokyo Electric Power Co, the power provider and operator of Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear power plant, began quietly enough, with a small report in the Mainichi Daily newspaper,
Japan’s hedgie trap
Some more insights into the (financial) traps and machinations of Japan’s post-March 11 markets and their impact on investors — this time from the FT’s Sam Jones, formerly of the FT Alphaville’s parish.