Whistleblower exposes insider trading program at JP Morgan Wikileaks. The tone is overwrought, but this does indeed not look pretty.
Logo Can Make You ‘Think Different’ PhysOrg. An illustration of how easily our mental processes can be manipulated.
Sovereign Funds: The writing on the wall… Jeff Frankel (guest blogging at RGE Monitor)
Volcker: Fed’s ‘Extreme’ Intervention ‘Raises Some Real Questions’ Greg Ip, Economics Blog, Wall Street Journal. Volcker is not keen about the Fed taking on potentially bad assets (that’s not its role) or rescuing entities it does not regulate but he acknowledges that there might have been no better option.
Exxon Loses U.K. Ruling In Fight With Venezuela Wall Street Journal
Wall Street’s Next Big Bailout? Eben Esterhuizen. On the link between the dollar and stock prices.
SEC Opens Bear Stearns Stock Manipulation Inquiry Bloomberg (hat tip Alea)
Antidote du jour:
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Is that the let sleeping dogs lie pix? Is there a theme with sleeping animals here?
It’s Confidence, Stupid!
http://www.cnbc.com/id/23698095
Re: Well … I wouldn´t go THAT far. Maybe more along the lines of Deutsche Bank chief economist Norbert Walter, who put it this way: “Weekend emergency rate moves don´t help … Right from the start, the Fed has been part of panic in the markets – both fed from it and added to it … The Fed is not, was never on top of the situation …”
Did it work? Mission accomplished? Confidence restored? – Well …. you tell me!
I´d say – Nope. Mission NOT accomplished. Confidence in markets these days is harder to find than an abandoned pint of Guinness in an Irish pub on St. Patrick´s Day.
Sorry, but I´m almost inclined to quote ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet on this one: “The best way to restore confidence to the markets is to keep your monetary policy solidly anchored in price stability.”
Volcker’s observations at length are worth repeating:
http://www.charlierose.com/shows/2008/03/18/2/a-discussion-about-the-economy-with-paul-volcker
RE “SEC Opens Bear Stearns…” I think David Leonhardt(?) has an article in today’s NY Times how it is that not even “insiders” understand what financiers have created – e.g., Rubin’s admission that he’d never heard of “liquidity puts” until they were brought to his attention as a problem. So I shouldn’t feel too slow as an outsider looking in, through a glass darkly… But doesn’t this story suggest, if this happened, that somebodies played the Fed like a cheap drum? How does this manipulation causally relate to another asserted cause (that I came across here)- that Bear Stearns’ problems followed upon Fannie and Freddie being authorized to take on JUMBO mortgages (which drove up spreads, etc.)Wouldn’t it be too rich if JP Morgan were involved in creating Bear’s problems – since from the first post re Wikileaks, we have the suggestion that ethics is not their product…
Under Greenspan’s stewardship, the Fed cut the federal funds rate at an emergency meeting in 1998 as a result of the Asian financial crisis and also lowered rates at two unplanned meetings in early 2001 due to an economic slump and again that year after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.