FTAlphavilleFT Alphaville is a 2008 Webby Award Winner

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…

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…

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…

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…

Have you wondered what it is like to be a real stock market trader? Have you been secretly memorising ticker symbols? If you happen to live in the UK, here is that once-in-a-lifetime chance: via hereisthecity.com, More…

Elsewhere on Thursday,

- “No-one in the City feels the need to change his underpants. After all, what chance do public sector workers have of ever recognizing a well-informed decision?”

- “Nearly 80% of affluent Americans believe a recession has already hit the US and optimism about the US is at a record low among the well-to-do.” More…

News and analysis from the FT:

Martin Feldstein: Why prepositions matter
A misstatement (due to a misleading preposition) that the US economy expanded in the first quarter creates an inappropriately sanguine view of the months ahead and therefore reduces the prospect of strong action to prevent the deep decline that may otherwise occur, More…

A US tax investigation into the private banking operations of UBS is being aided by a former UBS insider who has met with US prosecutors, reports the WSJ. The US probe into UBS’s private bank, the world’s largest and one that prides itself on conservatism and confidentiality, More…

The pain from the subprime crisis has largely worked its way through the investment banking world but might only be just beginning for retail lenders, John Thain, chief executive of Merrill Lynch, said Wednesday. More…

The unexpected resignation of a star hedge fund manager, poor performance and the forced restatement of costs overshadowed GLG Partners’ Q1 results. Noam Gottesman, chairman and chief executive, said the group that listed in New York in November was “facing cross-currents near-term”. More…

Recently installed chief executives at Merrill Lynch and Citigroup are raiding the ranks of their former employers, Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley, as they seek to transform the culture and management of banks shaken by the credit crisis. More…

Who is Dubai International Capital’s spinmeister? Because it’s a tough job, in our view. The interview published in Wednesday’s FT with Sameer al-Ansari, DIC head, prompts us to consider how DIC and other sovereign wealth funds are dealing with the continuing waves of bad publicity. More…

Elsewhere on Wednesday,

- Do contracts matter any more?

- You say tomato….Saudi’s “investment company”, “not a sovereign fund”

- “It isn’t unrealistic to think the Saudis oil export revenue could approach $400 billion a year if oil stays above $120.” More…

Comment and analysis from the FT

Martin Wolf: Seven habits finance regulators must acquire
Financial regulation needs to be radically reconsidered, unless, as Paul Volker – the “giant among contemporary central bankers” - points out, More…

One of the most senior private bankers at UBS has been detained by authorities in the US investigating whether the Swiss bank helped its American clients evade tax. Martin Liechti, the Zurich-based head of North and South America for UBS’s international wealth management business, More…

Michael Spencer, founder of inter-dealer broker Icap, is ploughing tens of millions of dollars into a new hedge fund to profit from frontier markets in Africa and the Middle East amid a rush of money into the region. More…

Kamal Tabet, the London-based global head of financial entrepreneurs at Citigroup, and one of the best-connected bankers among private equity firms, is taking a sabbatical following a wider restructuring at the US bank. More…

Crude oil prices could surge to $200 a barrel in the next two years, according to the Goldman Sachs analyst who three years ago correctly predicted a price “super-spike” above $100 a barrel. The warning by Arjun Murti came as oil prices hit a fresh high above $122 a barrel, More…

Think $122 a barrel is high? Think again.

Goldman Sachs’ Arjun Murti believes oil prices of $150 to $200 a barrel within the next six to 24 months are “increasingly likely”. Mr Murti is the analyst who three years ago correctly predicted a price “super-spike” More…

Surely not. It can’t be. No way!

Michael Breslow, the reported chief executive of an alleged Brazilian company called Multi-Long Corp, cannot be the latest incarnation of our famous Gold Fields bid hoaxer, More…

A massive thank you to all who voted - and left such kind comments. FT Alphaville has been honoured at the Webby Awards, taking both the judges’ panel and the People’s Voice awards in the business blog category. More…

Elsewhere on Tuesday,

-  Microhoo! postponed..

- … but don’t expect a a knee-jerk Yahoostock buyback

-  Bloggers dissect the Microsoft-Yahoo nondeal

-  Borrowing from retirement plans is surging. More…

Comment and analysis from the FT:

Insight: The solution to the Libor debate
What with the collapse of the leveraged loan market, introduction of Basel II and the increased cost of funding, difficulties with the accuracy of Libor is a problem the banks can do without, More…

Yahoo might have been prepared to accept a lower price from Microsoft rather than see takeover talks between the two companies collapse, Jerry Yang, its co-founder and chief executive, indicated Monday. More…

Merrill Lynch sees no need for more capital as the subprime crisis nears an end, but expects US banks with large exposure to consumers to be the next problem area, John Thain, its chief executive, told a Singapore newspaper, More…

In case you missed these stories:
DT has Sprint Nextel in its sights
Deutsche Telekom is considering the takeover of Sprint Nextel of the US which would catapult the German telecoms group from number four to number one by users in the US mobile market. More…

Alan Greenspan is at it again - making Ben Bernanke’s life difficult.

This time, the former Fed chairman told Bloomberg that the US has slipped into a recession - albeit an “awfully pale” one - and may continue to languish for the rest of the year. More…