We discussed that EU financial institutions may be at risk if capital flight from emerging economies continues. Europe will also suffer along with developing markets for another reason: they also have strong trade links. From Bloomberg: The European economy’s close ties to emerging markets are turning from a blessing to a curse. Already skirting recession, […]
Read more...Talk about getting creative to avoid use of the dollar (the iranians are particularly keen to avoid use of the dollar in oil trading, it verges on a point of honor with them. They have been selling oil to the Japanese with trades denominated in yen rather than the dollar as the reference currency for […]
Read more...We have written before how many of the various government interventions to try to produce specific outcomes in financial markets have either not proven very successful or produced adverse outcomes elsehwhere. The latest example is the Fed’s new program by which it is buying commercial paper, a form of short-term corporate debt, directly from companies […]
Read more...Dog risks life for kittens BBC Sarah Palin’s home state Anchorage Daily News endorses Barack Obama Telegraph. And Palin’s lack of preparedness was one of several reasons for preferring Obama. Government computers used to find information on Joe the Plumber Columbus Dispatch A Record in Making Guinness Annoyed at You New York Times Australian Central […]
Read more...The Japanese stock market was in positive territory for a while, then bobbled between up and down versus the Friday close, and has now taken a nosedive, down over 6%. Most other Asia-Pacific markets showed large losses save Australia, which was down a comparatively modest 1.5%ish. The yen is now (3:00 AM) just above 93 […]
Read more...Morgan Stanley’s money market funds were hit by major redemptions in September, and the firm stepped in to fund half of the withdrawals itself, presumably out of a view that selling the underlying fund assets into a deteriorating market would only lead to distressed prices. But one has to wonder whether the positions that Morgan […]
Read more...Large current account surpluses do not mean a country’s are on a sound footing, as Japan, China, and now the Gulf States illustrate. A big bank near-failure in Kuwait has led the central bank to mount a rescue plan, and is weighting guaranteeing bank deposits. As the example of Ireland showed, bank guarantees (when stronger […]
Read more...Having worked for Goldman (admittedly many years ago, although by all accounts the culture has not changed much) and had Citi as a client, the two firms would not have made for an easy marriage. And it’s a given that the Goldman side would assume, as when commodities giant Phibro acquired Salomon Brothers in the […]
Read more...We have noted before that the officialdom in the US has been remarkably less than candid (one might say outright dishonest) in discussing the likely trajectory of the financial crisis and economic growth. No one is willing to state the obvious, for instance, that banking crises lead to reductions in living standards, even though consumers […]
Read more...Small bird leaves scientists gobsmacked Stuff NZ Final Arguments? Contrary Brin Emerging markets turmoil engulfs UK listed banks Independent They’re Shocked, Shocked, About the Mess Gretchen Morgenson, New York Times. “My hypocrisy meter konked out last week…” Win the Nobel Prize,* they publish you on Sunday instead of Monday Angry Bear How domestic interest rates […]
Read more...Ed Harrison sent us a link to his latest post, and it’s a doozy. Most of us in the US who are financially-minded have been sufficiently caught up with the three ring circus of market turmoil, seemingly-a-new-trick-every-day Fed and Treasury interventions, and continuing financial firm implosions that we haven’t looked up much to see what […]
Read more...When Goldman announced layoffs last week (3200 people, or 10% of its staff), it said there was no longer any place to hide. Unemployment claims are increasing at a pace that has caught some economists by surprise, indicating that the real economy downturn is picking up momentum at a rapid pace. Because many jobs, even […]
Read more...Barry Ritholtz at The Big Picture has sometimes taken to showing spikes in his website’s traffic around market crises. They are usually dramatic and he has said in the past that they signal short-term market bottoms. Your humble blogger has also witnessed this phenomenon. We had a huge jump in traffic around the Bear crisis, […]
Read more...Why Dogs Don’t Enjoy Music Scientific American (hat tip Mark Thoma) Hot drinks promote warm feelings BBC Princeton publishes how-to guide for hacking Sequoia e-voting machines engadget (hat tip Ed Harrison) States’ Tax Receipts Fell Sharply in Latest Quarter Wall Street Journal. Predictable, but the magnitude of the decay caught many by surprise. `Out of […]
Read more...Hyperbole has become a mainstay of discourse in the US. The upcoming financial summit set for November 15 in Washington DC is being wrapped in the Bretton Woods brand, when it appears to be a different sort of beast. As a Wall Street Journal story reminds us, Bretton Woods was a three week session among […]
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