Posts tagged 'God'

Smoke, stats, and sashaying away

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

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| Mar 13 15:45 | Comment |

Statistical modelling. It goes everywhere.

The Monkey Cage points us to this 2004 paper on strategic voting in papal elections (there was still no sign of white smoke at pixel time on Wednesday): Read more

Angels and debtors

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

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| Jul 05 2012 18:49 | Comment |

Sovereign deficit du jour (all figures in euros unless stated otherwise):

The consolidated financial statements of the Holy See for 2011 closed with a deficit of 14,890,034. The most significant items of expenditure were those relative to personnel (who as of 31 December 2011 numbered 2,832) and to the communications media considered as a whole. The result was affected by the negative trend of global financial markets, which made it impossible to achieve the goals laid down in the budget. Read more

And on the eighth day He created a supranational institution with universal competence

Cardiff writes mostly about US macroeconomic issues, with daily excursions into other topics about which he claim no expertise. Before Alphaville, Cardiff spent a little more than two years as a reporter at Dow Jones Financial News covering investment banking, asset management, and private equity. Along the way he has written freelance pieces on a variety of other topics from behavioural psychology to Muay Thai, the latter also being a personal interest that involves frequently getting kicked in the shins (and torso, and head).

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| Oct 24 2011 22:04 | Comment |

From our Lord and Saviour, via his earthly representative and the New York Times:

The Vatican called on Monday for an overhaul of the world’s financial systems, and once again proposed the establishment of a supranational authority to oversee the global economy, saying it was needed to bring more democratic and ethical principles to a marketplace run amok. Read more

Thy god is a capricious god

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

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| Sep 27 2011 12:35 | Comment |

RTRS-GREEK FINMIN SAYS JULY 21 EU DEAL IS THE BIBLE FOR GREECE

Sadly the Greek government is effectively the only one left thinking the bailout and light bond haircut are still set in stone… Read more

Let us pay

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

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| Sep 22 2011 13:09 | Comment |

*MERKEL SAYS SHE, POPE SPOKE ABOUT FINANCIAL MARKETS

Related link:
God coverage – FT Alphaville Read more

Is God a fan of austerity?

Joseph joined FT Alphaville way back in March 2010. He likes all the politically and legally fiddly bits of finance. He also likes credit, rates, global macro, tail risk, and all that stuff. (You should email him story ideas. He’ll take anything.)

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| Sep 02 2011 09:54 | Comment |

Erm, OK, not God. Not even the Pope — although an editorial in L’Osservatore Romano by the Pope’s banker comes close:

During a prolonged crisis, inheritance taxes, new forms of taxation or similar alternatives reduce or wipe out resources for investments, discouraging the trust of investors, penalizing the cost of the public debt and the possibilities of its renewal at its expiration. In this context, imposing taxes on property and on income is equivalent to a suicidal anti-subsidiarity of the state to the citizen. Those who legally possess assets, on which they have paid the proper taxes, have contributed to creating wealth and, thanks precisely to these assets, continue to produce them with investments and consumption. Read more

Holy rollers

Tracy Alloway used to be deputy editor of FT Alphaville. Here she learned the details of derivatives, the absurdities of accounting and the various structures of ... erm ... structured finance. She now covers big US banks for the FT paper, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. She pops up on FT Alphaville every once in a while.

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| Apr 27 2010 08:20 | Comment |

Are you a Christian? Have you had enough of all this ‘evil’ finance fuss? Do you want to go good?

Meet the Stoxx Europe Christian index. Read more

Vatican-backed ethical index launches

Tracy Alloway used to be deputy editor of FT Alphaville. Here she learned the details of derivatives, the absurdities of accounting and the various structures of ... erm ... structured finance. She now covers big US banks for the FT paper, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. She pops up on FT Alphaville every once in a while.

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| Apr 27 2010 03:02 | Comment |

Europe’s first Christian equity index was launched on Monday in response to increasing demand by investors for so-called ethical stocks in the wake of the financial crisis, the FT says. The Stoxx Europe Christian Index comprises 533 European companies that only derive revenues from sources approved “according to the values and principles of the Christian religion”. Read more

JP Morgan, I put a spell on you

Tracy Alloway used to be deputy editor of FT Alphaville. Here she learned the details of derivatives, the absurdities of accounting and the various structures of ... erm ... structured finance. She now covers big US banks for the FT paper, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. She pops up on FT Alphaville every once in a while.

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| Apr 07 2010 08:20 | Comment |

There’s nothing like hard times to bring out the bank-bashing craziness. And JP Morgan is no stranger to recession-induced weirdness. For instance, in 1933, in the midst of the Great Depression, John Pierpont Morgan had a midget sit on his lap during the Pecora Commission — a series of hearings delving into the causes of the Wall Street Crash. Now, though, it’s been subject to a ‘holy hex’, says FT Alphaville. Read more

Citi’s Christmas Credit Carols

Tracy Alloway used to be deputy editor of FT Alphaville. Here she learned the details of derivatives, the absurdities of accounting and the various structures of ... erm ... structured finance. She now covers big US banks for the FT paper, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. She pops up on FT Alphaville every once in a while.

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| Dec 18 2009 14:08 | Comment |

‘Tis the season for festive levity from analysts.

And fittingly on Friday, while snow drifts gently down in London, and FT Alphaville prepares for its Xmas AVent party, Citi’s annual Christmas carols have just landed in our inbox. Read more

Goldman Sachs abandons kittens (really)

Tracy Alloway used to be deputy editor of FT Alphaville. Here she learned the details of derivatives, the absurdities of accounting and the various structures of ... erm ... structured finance. She now covers big US banks for the FT paper, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. She pops up on FT Alphaville every once in a while.

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| Nov 12 2009 08:21 | Comment |

A fresh PR disaster for Goldman Sachs.

The investment bank stands accused of abandoning kittens. Really. Read more

Varley’s inferno

Izabella Kaminska joined FT Alphaville in October 2008. Before that she worked as a producer at CNBC, a natural gas reporter at Platts and an associate editor of BP's internal magazine.

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| Nov 04 2009 10:56 | Comment |

The quest for spiritual salvation seems very much on the mind of global banking executives of late.

Bloomberg reports Barclays CEO John Varley is the latest to try and convince god-fearing folk the world over that his industry’s moral code and primary raison d’etre are all good in the eyes of the Lord.  Namely, that “profit is not satanic” and that it’s okay to be a banker (whatever Jesus might have done to the money lenders in the temple). Read more

Holy See names new CEO

| Sep 24 2009 17:38 | Comment |

No, we’re not talking about the Pope; Benedict XVI is no fan of capitalism, in any event.

But not everyone in the Vatican City would bewail the futility of money and ambition, as the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday: Read more

‘The Fed is pursuing an immoral course’

Tracy Alloway used to be deputy editor of FT Alphaville. Here she learned the details of derivatives, the absurdities of accounting and the various structures of ... erm ... structured finance. She now covers big US banks for the FT paper, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. She pops up on FT Alphaville every once in a while.

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| Mar 31 2009 16:11 | Comment |

Or, the ethics of quantitative easing.

George Bragues, business professor at the University of Guelph-Humber, is taking central banks to task for immoral monetary policy in an academic paper. Read more

A homely parade in the currency ‘ugly’ contest

| Jan 06 2009 11:46 | Comment |

After the “flight to safety” panic of last year which saw investors flocking to government bonds among a dwindling choice of “save haven” investments, the mood appears to be turning nearly 180 degrees against government debt – as seen in the FT’s latest survey of leading asset managers and strategists, reported Tuesday.

Along with the steady thaw in credit markets and some new resilience in equity markets, there are many signs of a financial system heading out of intensive care, as Gavekal, the Hong Kong-based research and asset management group, notes in a client newsletter on Tuesday. All of which reinforces Gavekal’s view that “government bonds today are in fact the most dangerous asset class out there”. Read more

How to prevent bank failures, the social way

Tracy Alloway used to be deputy editor of FT Alphaville. Here she learned the details of derivatives, the absurdities of accounting and the various structures of ... erm ... structured finance. She now covers big US banks for the FT paper, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. She pops up on FT Alphaville every once in a while.

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| Oct 22 2008 08:20 | Comment |

Not just more regulation but more social equality and responsibility, apparently.

That’s the opinion of Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, a member of the executive board of the ECB. He gave an interesting speech (even more interesting because it manages to have footnotes) to the Unione Cristiana Imprenditori e Dirigenti – the Christian union of business entrepreneurs, on Monday. Read more

Existential Libor

Tracy Alloway used to be deputy editor of FT Alphaville. Here she learned the details of derivatives, the absurdities of accounting and the various structures of ... erm ... structured finance. She now covers big US banks for the FT paper, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. She pops up on FT Alphaville every once in a while.

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| Oct 09 2008 10:48 | Comment |

McFear in action.

From Bloomberg News (HT FJ): Read more

Repent, ye fiscal sinner

Tracy Alloway used to be deputy editor of FT Alphaville. Here she learned the details of derivatives, the absurdities of accounting and the various structures of ... erm ... structured finance. She now covers big US banks for the FT paper, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley. She pops up on FT Alphaville every once in a while.

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| Oct 06 2008 15:50 | Comment |

If you’re not praying already, you might want to consider starting sometime around now.

From Yahoo News (HT Dead Ringa): Read more

What would Jesus short?

FT Hedge Fund Correspondent

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| Sep 25 2008 17:27 | Comment |

Or perhaps more appropriately: Money lenders in the temple?

From PA: Read more

God, spivs and specs

| Sep 25 2008 07:46 | Comment |

Of course someone had to bring God into this at some point. And how. Britain’s archbishops are condemning spivs and speculators for “worshipping the false god of money” and urging a further crackdown on financial markets, while the Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has gone a step further to say Karl Marx was “right” to condemn capitalism.

Meanwhile Dr John Sentamu, Archbishop of York, told the Worshipful Company of International Bankers: “Those who made £190million deliberately underselling the shares of HBOS, in spite of its very strong capital base, and drove it into the bosom of Lloyds TSB, are clearly bank robbers and asset strippers. Read more

Northern Rock’s new hope – God

FT Hedge Fund Correspondent

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| Sep 25 2007 10:02 | Comment |

Forget HM Treasury. Northern Rock’s deposits could be guaranteed from the top. The very top.

Northern Rock has been approached with a bid offer from a group of Spanish banks, according to reports from Spanish daily newspaper El Mundo. The group of banks is headed by Spanish entrepreneur Jose Maria Ruiz-Mateos, who approached Northern Rock CEO Adam Applegarth on Friday: Read more