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.)
Learn moreNot our argument — McGraw-Hill’s.
An interesting tack is taken in its lawyers’ motion to dismiss US charges of civil mortgage fraud against Standard & Poor’s, as filed on Monday… Read more
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.)
Learn moreDid the world not already know that a CDO analyst at S&P parodied Talking Heads “Burning Down the House” as the residential market teetered in 2007?
Like “it could be structured by cows and we would rate it”, it feels like a meme that would need to be invented if it didn’t already exist. Read more
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.)
Learn moreHat-tip to the WSJ Law Blog, the full US government complaint against Standard & Poor’s:
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.)
Learn moreUpdate, 8:40pm UK time — Shares in McGraw-Hill were down 15 per cent at pixel.
Fresh in the inbox… Read more
David joined the FT in 2011 as a Marjorie Deane fellow. He covered emerging markets, equities and currencies before making the jump over to FT Alphaville in May 2012.
Learn moreThanks to Reuters Jamie McGeever for spotting this rather circular bit of introspective logic from S&P. You see, the ratings agency has discovered that its own sovereign ratings are a good guide to its future sovereign ratings. So, for example, since 1989, they have never lowered a sovereign rating with a positive outlook.
It’s the kind of record you fight to keep. Read more
Lisa joined FT Alphaville in September 2011 after a tour of duty through the guts of the financial industry, having worked as an analyst at a bank and for a financial data company.
Learn moreThe financial crisis demonstrated how the treatment of securitisations under the Basel framework was some combination of delinquent and a massive enabler of rating agency (and bank) mis-modelling. No wonder then that it only took until July 2009 to get the duct tape out, i.e. release “enhancements” to Basel II, commonly known as “Basel 2.5″.
Now that the committee has had time to truly, madly, and deeply think it over, it’s time for… drumroll… a consultative document on which comment will be sought by March 15, 2013. Oh, it’s on now. Read more
Kate is FT AV’s Asia Correspondent. She joined FT Alphaville in mid-2011 after carrying out various roles in the FT’s London office since 2005: interactive editor, companies reporter, and founding editor of the FT’s Energy Source blog.
Learn moreMoody’s announced on Tuesday that it’s reviewing its sovereign credit ratings methodology, and seeking comment from industry participants.
The review comes probably not a moment too soon — and we are not just talking about the French getting very cranky. Bloomberg reckons Moody’s sovereign ratings are unpopular, even by the low standards of sovereign ratings popularity: Read more
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.)
Learn moreJoseph 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.)
Learn more
Moody’s has cut France to Aa1 from Aaa, maintaining the negative outlook originally conferred in February.
Pierre Moscovici, French finance minister, was stoic at pixel time. “Moodys is now giving France the same rating as Standard & Poor’s, which has allowed us to live with low interest rates for many months,” he told Reuters. S&P cut its AAA rating for France back in January. Read more
| Market | Last price | Today's change |
52 week high |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|
| FTSE 100 Index: FSI As of May 23 2013 16:35 |
6,697 | -143.48 | -2.1% | 6,876 |
| FTSEurofirst 300 Index: FSI As of May 23 2013 17:15 |
1,230 | -26.34 | -2.1% | 1,258 |
| S&P 500 INDEX: WCB As of May 23 2013 05:00 |
1,651 | -4.84 | -0.3% | 1,687 |
| Euro/US Dollar FX Spot Rate As of May 23 2013 21:20 |
1.29 | 0.00 | -0.2% | 1.37 |
| ICE Brent Crude Oil Front Month: IEU As of May 24 2013 02:34 |
102.46 | +0.02 | +0.0% | 119.17 |
| COMEX GOLD 1 FUTURES CHAIN Front Mon: CMX As of May 23 2013 23:15 |
1,392 | 0.00 | 0.00% | 1,795 |
© The Financial Times Ltd 2013 FT and 'Financial Times' are trademarks of The Financial Times Ltd.
1About China's capacity to absorb more capital
2Japan's mini crash: Blame China, not just Ben
3Spain's awful unemployment
4The Nikkei: a market abducted by retail
5S&P 2,100, by Goldman Sachs
Show more6Everlasting credit, the long view
7Buyback to enrich
8Measure it however you like: inflation has been low and falling
9Bernanke's testimony to the Joint Economic Committee
10Everyone's scared of something
Show fewer