There may be a disconnect between what the brokerage industry is reporting on a temporary rule to ban naked shorts in 19 financial firms, whose common characteristic seems to be that they are deemed “too big to fail,” and what some customers are experiencing. The industry reports that everything is hunky dory now that the […]
Read more...This item came from reader Chris, who passed along a tidbit from Wolfgang Munchau’s Eurointelligence daily newsletter. I can’t provide a link to the story itself; checking around the Eurointelligence site, it seems to be an e-mail only product, and the piece in question is based on a German news story. The proposal is odd. […]
Read more...Pamela Ann Smith interviewed Robert Mabro, a world recognized expert on oil and gas and founder and current honorary president of the Oxford Institute of Energy Studies. The full interview is at RedOrbit (hat tip reader Michael) but the formatting is annoying (bizarrely, it doesn’t say who is saying what, although readers can infer most […]
Read more...Charles Wyplosz has a post up at VoxEU that is both clever and informative. He looks at the wisdom of having taxpayers shore up faltering banking systems, using the largely opposed viewpoints of two well-known economists as a point of departure: Larry Summers, former Treasury Secretary, who has argued that intervention is necessary to prevent […]
Read more...As he is often wont to do, Ambrose Evans-Pritchard worries, in dire terms, about the poor prospects for growth and stability, It would be easy to dismiss him as histrionic were it not for the fact that some commentators who have been right so far about the progress of the credit crunch, are also hyperventilating. […]
Read more...Drought threatens drinking water for a million Australians PhysOrg. In case you wondered, total population is about 20 million Persecution Not Prosecution: ‘Bioterror’ Case Falls Apart Common Dreams (hat tip Some Assembly Required). Your tax dollars at work. Is your money safe in their hands? Financial Times. A sign of the times. Bush Failures May […]
Read more...The headline of this International Herald Tribune article (hat tip reader Saboor) is a real sign of the times. The short answer is our policies assume the answer is yes, but if we don’t course correct, that assumption is likely to be tested. Specifically, the argument goes, our trading partners will continue to be willing […]
Read more...The last two days of the HBOS rights offering are Monday and Tuesday. Only 10% of the £4 billion offering have been placed, and the price as of Friday was hovering perilously close to the rights offering level. Underwriters Morgan Stanley and Dresdner, and if they have syndicated the deal, other underwriters, will try to […]
Read more...On Mustang Range, a Battle on Thinning the Herd New York Times Dog rescues woman from kangaroo BBC Greenland Ice Core Analysis Shows Drastic Climate Change Near End Of Last Ice Age Science Daily (hat tip Some Assembly Required). Get this: temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere increased 22 degrees in 50 years. How reliable is […]
Read more...This program to assist overextended homeowners has only just begun, so it is way to early to say whether it will succeed, but it is an improved version of Dean Baker’s “own to rent” idea. Note that one of the elements, having a new bank buy the original lender out at the 70% of mortgage […]
Read more...From Reuters (hat tip reader Saboor): Citigroup chairman Win Bischoff has warned that house prices in Britain and the United States are likely to keep falling for another two years. The chairman of one of the world’s most powerful banks told the BBC in an interview that he expects it will take two years for […]
Read more...Um, could someone explain to these folks that the monster rally in bank stocks was due to short covering? No. the bankers would rather live in the illusion that the dim outlook for their industry is due solely to the machinations of evil short sellers, not their mismanagement. Objectively speaking, the downside of a low […]
Read more...Jim Grant, who writes and publishes Grant’s Interest Rate Observer, is a rare figure on Wall Street: extraordinarily well versed in financial history, literate, possessed with a Victorian sensibility, which is very much on display here. His essay today in the Wall Street Journal is very much worth reading (and appears to be accessible without […]
Read more...Full disclosure: I have a great deal of respect for both Tim Duy and the hedge fund manager Scott who is also quoted in this post. As you will see, Duy wrote an interesting post addressing a question posed by Brad DeLong, in essence “Since we are in the midst of the worst financial crisis […]
Read more...Leopard savaging a crocodile caught on camera Telegraph Hundreds of baby penguins found dead in Brazil PhysOrg In the Lions’ Den – Part Two Chris Cook, European Tribune (hat tip reader dk). A post by Chris Cook formerly of the IPE, on on possible manipulation in OTC BFOE contracts Finance and growth: When does credit […]
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