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’Sorry – you still can’t buy OR swap Libyan oil easily, at all
Conversely: ‘sorry rebels – you still can’t get cash to fight the brutal dictator easily, at all’.
Oh dear: one great big flaw has emerged in any plan to buy oil from Libya’s rebels, despite them forming a parallel oil infrastructure.
Why you really can’t swap Libyan crude easily, at all
It’s not just about finding enough quality crude to replace Libya — it’s about the not insubstantial political risks hanging over those supplies, too.
Fighting in Libya worsened on Wednesday, as rebels counter-attacked an offensive by Gaddafi forces into the country’s east — which is where much of the oil production is (was),
A further indignity for BP?
Nigerian spammers are now trying to profit from its woes, according to Bronte Capital’s John Hempton, who (ahem, ahem, cough, cough) found the following in his inbox on Wednesday:
From: Dudley Caruthers Esq (Barrister at Law)
Subject:
Shell gives BP a lesson in PR (or does it?) updated
Update: May 18, 13.20 (BST).
Hands up, we were duped on this one. Shell say the release is a hoax.
From a company spokesman:
We have confirmed that this is a hoax. We aren’t commenting on the content of the hoax release but are investigating its publication.
India sort of ♥ Glass-Steagall
And you thought the Volcker Rule was bad. The Indian government is reportedly considering forcing the country’s public sector banks to exit non-core businesses.
The thinking, circulated in a Finance Ministry proposal,
Nigeria to lift foreign bank takeover ban
Nigeria will lift a decades-old ban on foreign takeovers of its banks, said Lamido Sanusi, the new governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, who told the FT he would encourage international banks to make acquisitions as part of a plan to boost confidence in Nigeria’s financial system.
Political fat tails
Probability distributions didn’t do a great job predicting financial meltdown, and we’re not sure they’ll be much better at predicting general events. But, since it’s not far-fetched to think that political extremes can follow economic ones,
Africa datapoint du jour: Nigeria becomes world’s worst market
Distressing Bloomberg story, at least for Africa bulls, on the decline of Nigeria’s equity market:
Nigeria’s stock market, Africa’s best performer during the past decade, posted the biggest declines worldwide in the first quarter as bad loans to speculators pushed bank valuations to an all-time low.
Damn those 419 scammers are good!
… says the author of the eponymous Cassandra Does Tokyo.
Following is a taste of the latest such 419 email to plop into her inbox, ostensibly from ‘United States Lottery Director’, or one Timothy Geithner: