FTAlphavilleFT Alphaville is a 2008 Webby Award Winner

Psst. Are you in the market for a social security number or three, by any chance? How about access to a compromised bank account? It will cost you - about 6 to 11 cents on the dollar.

At least, that is what the creators of this recently-discovered price list were demanding, More…

Why is it that in this age of online and mobile banking the US government has opted to disburse its $160bn stimulus package by bulk-mailing cheques to 128m American households?

Over at Bloggingstocks.com, More…

What is Robert Tchenguiz up to? One minute everyone is muttering about his solvency and he’s been kicked out of the Sunday Times’ Guess Rich List. The next he turns up on the register of Whitbread (through contracts for difference) with a stake of 3 per cent - encouraging everyone to believe there is somehow a break-up bid in the offering. More…

This should do the trick. (HT A Slade)

HM TREASURY
PN 44/08 9 May 2008
Strengthening support for home owners in current market conditions

A new £10 million package of measures to support home owners who may be facing difficulties with their mortgage, More…

Could the uber-bear, Albert Edwards, possibly become more bearish?

Yep! From his global strategy weekly, sent out to SocGen clients:

Even as structural bears on equities over the last decade, we have never felt the confidence to lower equities to a minimum possible exposure of 30%. More…

Chart of the day - from John Kemp at Sempra Metals:

Here’s an illustration of how the market has consistently called the future price of oil wrong over the past five years - snapshots of forward prices each November, More…

Hector Sants will not like this, but the debate over whether insider dealing should be decriminalised is gathering pace.

First there was Chris Dillow at Stumbling and Mumbling, who suspects the current market abuse regime owes more to the power of vested interests than to economic logic. More…

Fred Wilson from Union Square Ventures, who runs the A VC blog in New York, went to a hedge fund event on Thursday and decided to twitter the event:

Headed to the semi annual meeting of a hedge fund of funds. More…

Elsewhere on Friday:

What do you get when you cross good, thematic long-term investors and stock pickers with quarterly or annual redemptions? Perverse decision-making and style drift. Or a portfolio manager with an ulcer. More…

The latest on Friday,

- Tom Hunter tries to block open offer planned by Dobbies Garden Centres. Statement

- Conditions “challenging” for bid target Minerva. Statement.

- Mexican silver producer Fresnillo prices London IPO at 555p a share, More…

Comment and analysis from the FT:

Comment: De Rothschild on ethical finance standards
The events of the past 18 months should teach us that it has become too easy to make money in the financial sector, More…

Citigroup will on Friday identify as much as $400bn in non-core assets that could be sold as part of plans to reduce costs and restore profit growth. At a scheduled meeting with Wall Street analysts, Vikram Pandit, More…

The crisis at American International Group deepened on Thursday, after $15bn in credit-related writedowns plunged the US insurer into a record quarterly loss and prompted plans to raise $12.5bn in fresh capital. More…

The pound pulled higher from a 10-week low against the dollar on Thursday after the Bank of England left UK interest rates on hold at 5%, suggesting it does not yet think the UK economy has slowed enough to bring inflation back to target in the medium term. More…

Sovereign Bancorp, the second-largest US savings and loan, is poised to raise $1bn-$2bn in fresh capital from a group of investors led by Grupo Santander of Spain. The deal, which could be announced as early as next week, More…

UBS agreed to return about $35m to Massachusetts cities and other government entities that bought investments for their short-term cash needs but found themselves unable to sell the securities easily because of the credit crunch, More…

SVG Capital has announced plans to raise £220m from selling a convertible bond and some of its portfolio assets in anticipation of a slowdown in activity at its main investment, Permira, the buy-out firm. More…

Bosch, Europe’s largest private industrial group and the world’s biggest car parts supplier, is embarking on an acquisition spree after two years of relative reticence as the financial crisis makes companies much cheaper. More…

Illinois Tool Works launched a counterbid for Enodis on Thursday, disrupting what had appeared to be a done deal with Manitowoc, its US rival. The catering equipment maker recommended an offer of 282p a share from ITW, More…

Best Buy of the US and the UK’s Carphone Warehouse on Thursday promised to shake-up the European consumer electronics landscape with a new joint venture. Carphone also underlined its ambition to become the UK’s largest broadband provider, More…

Gala Coral, the betting, bingo and casino group, has held exploratory talks with representatives of Britain’s leading racecourses over a potential £300m-plus joint-bid for the Tote, the state-owned bookmaker, More…

The number of companies defaulting on their junk-rated debt and filing for bankruptcy in North America is now running at its fastest pace in five years. So far this year, 28 “entities” have defaulted, More…

Wachovia, the fourth largest US bank by assets, has stripped the chairmanship from Ken Thompson but left him as chief executive following big loan losses and regulatory problems. The move to install Lanty More…

Shinsei Bank has revised its group earnings forecast for the fourth time, reflecting the volatility of its businesses and deterioration in the overall market environment. Shinsei, 32.6% owned by a group of investors led by JC Flowers, More…

While it is still too early for hedge-fund honchos to celebrate, the biggest winners so far this year are some of the funds that had the biggest losses over the brutal summer of 2007, reports the WSJ. Last summer, More…

US markets
DJIA up 52.43 at 12,866.78
Nasdaq up 12.75 at 2,451.24
S&P500 up 5.11 at 1,397.68

Asian markets
05:24am BST
Nikkei down 215.30 at 13,727.96
Topix down 23.99 at 1,348.96
Hang Seng More…

Talk about mixed messages.

AIG posted a steep $7.8bn first-quarter net loss, wrote down $9.1bn in CDS contracts, said it would try to raise $12.5bn - and then promptly raised its dividend by 10 per cent. More…

Paul Kedrosky triggered an outbreak of comments on his Infectious Greed blog with his assertion that oil has out-bubbbled tech in terms of both duration and percentage gain.

He backed up his assertion with a chart (see below) from Bespoke Investment Group comparing the bubbles in housing and technology sector with the run-up in oil. More…

The long-mooted interest in Minerva has been flushed out. Limitless, the real estate arm of Dubai World behind the Palm Jumeirah and World developments in the Emirate, confessed that it was in the “very preliminary stages of considering its options” More…

Homeowners in the US are defaulting on their mortgages at record rates, and commentators are increasingly casting the blame on “negative equity”.

The term applies to those borrowers whose loans are now worth more than the value of their homes, More…