Lisa Pollack
Further reading
Elsewhere on Thursday,
- US corporate tax cut proposed. But WHY?!
- How not having a lab affects the economic debate.
- Anglo Irish wasn’t like Greece at all.
- US housing market diagram and pain.
Will the Greece CDS auction be ‘fair’? — Part 2
The use of collective action clauses in Greek bonds, as part of the country’s sovereign restructuring, seems set to trigger credit default swaps. For the $3.2bn of net notional still outstanding on the contracts,
Will the Greece CDS auction be ‘fair’? — Part 1
Are you feeling relieved that the whole CDS trigger debate for Greece might be over? Well, you may have been relieved too soon. There may well be a big, nasty hitch.
A hitch involving how the credit event auction for Greece — where CDS payouts are determined — works.
StanChart camps out at the securitisation BISTRO – Part 2
In Part 1, FT Alphaville described what ‘synthetic securitisation’ deals done by Standard Chartered in the second half of 2011, looked like:
Now, let’s talk disclosure and what we know about the bigger picture of the latest generation of regulatory arbitrage trades.
StanChart camps out at the securitisation BISTRO – Part 1
A month ago, FT Alphaville took a closer look at a particular transaction that Barclays completed in order to decrease the amount of regulatory capital it was required to hold against a portfolio of loans.
Hedge funds exit stage left, pursued by bearishness
LONDON—World-renowned news and opinion magazine The Economist announced plans to suspend any new online and print content for the next month in an effort to finally allow subscribers a chance to catch up.
Further reading
Elsewhere on Monday,
- This weekend in Greece, China, and Foxxconn.
- Finding your place in Goldman Sachs.
- Is approving financial products FDA-style a good idea?
- Does the Iranian oil flow to China? Are oil prices off to the races? And is it good for the US?
- Comparing pay in private and public sectors,
[AV meets Naked Capitalism] Regulations… and optimism
For this, our final post covering FT Alphaville’s meeting with Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism, we asked her about the regulations that have arisen from the ashes of the financial crisis. Not wanting to leave the series on a depressing note,
[AV meets Naked Capitalism] Bankers and bonuses
In the first post about our meeting with Yves Smith, purveyor of the blog Naked Capitalism, we discussed the blogosphere and what prompted her to join it. Here we ask Ms Smith about her involvement with the Occupy movement and her opinions about banking and the contentious topic of bonuses.
[AV meets Naked Capitalism] The blogosphere
On Wednesday, FT Alphaville met Yves Smith, proprietor of the blog Naked Capitalism. Ms Smith is the author of the book ECONned: How unenlightened self interest undermined democracy and corrupted capitalism.
American swap regulation: a class apart
Take a moment to imagine what it must be like to be an American regulator. There are plenty to imagine being: the OCC, the Fed, the CFTC, SEC, FDIC, and that thrift one, until it subsumed into the OCC. Got one?
So there you are,
Further further reading
For the commute home,
- “Deposits” with money market funds aren’t protected like those in banks, and the SEC is only just getting around to regulating them. Better late than never?
- The shortage of safe assets is both structural and cyclical.
January effects in credit
It’s been a rather optimistic sort of January. S&P financials are finally trading above book value (but with wide variations between individual banks), junk bond issuance is full steam ahead with flows to high yield funds,
Become Facebook’s friend
The strangest thing just appeared in our Facebook…
We think it might have something to do with the preliminary prospectus the social networking company just filed in relation to its much-anticipated IPO.
Morgan Stanley’s most mysterious footnote — Part 2
In Part 1, we looked in and around Morgan Stanley’s mysterious little footnote about how the bank had reduced net exposure to Italy from $4.9bn to $1.5bn with a restructuring that settled in the early days of 2012.
Morgan Stanley’s most mysterious footnote — Part 1
(7) On December 22, 2011, the Company executed certain derivative restructuring amendments which settled on January 3, 2012. …
This mysterious little footnote announced to the world that in the fourth quarter,
The Volcker Rule riddle
There’s no shortage of concerns about the impact that new regulations will have. Basel 2.5 hitting the bond market, the prohibition of ratings under Dodd-Frank hurting the beleaguered mortgage market,
It’s bonus season, so what’s the meaning of life?
Around exam time at university, the conversation always seemed to fluctuate between points of revision, questions that might be asked, and what the meaning of life actually is. “Exams aren’t a test of your real ability,”
How to read CDS prices, featuring Portugal
When a sovereign or corporate becomes sufficiently distressed, a flip can happen in the way the credit default swaps are quoted. According to Markit, this is happening with Portugal now, with the CDS moving from being quoted in conventional spread to upfront.
Pink picks
Comment, analysis, and other offerings from Friday’s FT,
Philip Stephens: Europe rests on Monti’s shoulders
Italy is back. Germany’s Angela Merkel sits at the top of Europe’s power list.
Further further reading
For the commute home,
- Romney’s self-deportation policy would (have) be(en) very effective… (about 30 years ago).
- Davos is ignoring Occupy, and not just cause the good skiing is distracting.
The price of land on the interweb
Are internet domains an asset class? If so, what is the risk-return profile like?
In an effort to answer these questions, MIT researcher Thies Lindenthal has taken the very important step of creating a price index for domain names.
Pink picks
Comment, analysis and more from Wednesday’s FT,
Martin Wolf: The world’s hunger for public goods
Public goods are the building blocks of civilisation. Economic stability is itself a public good. So are security,
Flash PMIs and Germany’s bragging rights
Europe must grow its way out of this slump! It’s not enough to bail out profligate sovereigns and banks! Capital must be deployed to SMEs! Youth unemployment must be tackled! Fiscal discipline is not enough on its own!
Fire all engines!!
Markit Flash Germany PMI®
German private sector sees fastest growth for seven months in January,
When a derivatives counterparty leaves the euro…
Law firm Clifford Chance must be tired of fielding questions about what would happen to derivatives contracts should one’s eurozone counterparty exit the single-currency. So much so that they’ve put a document together covering 20 of what we imagine have been the most frequently asked questions.
The ECB creates artificial life
The credit team at Citi came out with a note on Friday entitled “Artificial life and Dolly the Sheep”. It contained this rather eye-catching analogy:
It’s been the dream of Sci-Fi fans for decades. 18 months ago US scientists announced they had created a living cell controlled entirely by synthetic DNA.
The preference for unequal pay
…potential thus exists for the formation of a”vicious cycle” where increases in disparity weaken concern for wage equality or redistribution. This weakened concern affords greater future compensation differentials,
US Markets Live! 10am New York, 3pm London
Cardiff Garcia and Joseph Cotterill wade through bank earnings, tech earnings, earnings, earnings, earnings, political futures markets, bacon, sausages, spam, and the Greek bond swap. So go and join them in the usual place.
Greek lessons for Portugal
It appears that the “voluntary” Greek bond swap might finally come to an end.
Time then to spare a thought for the derivative that drove the need to draft the damn thing so gently in the first place.