La vita è un crinografo

Thu Jul 2
“ In return, the Austrian government pledged to give the airline a €500m restructuring grant, a move much-criticised by Lufthansa’s main rival Air France-KLM. FT.com / Companies / Airlines - Full probe for Lufthansa-Austrian deal
Wed Jul 1
“ There is an exaggerated fear that private equity contains big systemic risk. Our opinion is that it does not,” said Mats Odell, the country’s financial markets minister

Ci volevano gli svedesi per dirlo?

FT.com / Brussels - Sweden rides to defence of hedge funds
“ But some question whether such schemes will work in the long term. Even the European Central Bank has waded into the debate, saying short-time working will delay the recovery. It argues that if the downturn is short-lived such schemes can be “efficient tools” but “over time, these measures generate a major fiscal burden without creating incentives for investment to foster recovery”. Jorma Ollila, chairman of Nokia and Royal Dutch Shell, frets about the impact on national budgets: “It is a costly way for governments to buy time.

W la CIG

FT.com / Comment / Analysis - Time will tell
“ Yet bank failures are like buses: you do not see one for hours and then a fleet arrives together. FT.com / Columnists / Martin Wolf - The cautious approach to fixing banks will not work
Mon Jun 29
“ The IEA, the consuming countries’ watchdog, now expects global oil demand to grow a paltry 0.6 per cent or 540,000 b/d in 2008-2014, pushing consumption from 85.8m b/d to 89m b/d. That is considerably less than the 1m b/d average yearly increase the IEA had expected last year. If the lower-end GDP forecasts turn out to be correct, oil demand could actually contract over the period, with consumption at 84.9m b/d in 2014, the IEA said in its medium-term oil market report. FT.com / Global Economy - Oil watchdog cuts demand forecasts
Sun Jun 28

Presagi subprime

Tratto da un articolo profetico e lungimirante di DFW pubblicato nel 2005:

[…] Però le réclame più frequenti e tartassanti di Kfi sono quelle delle società di mutui e rifinanziamento immobiliare. In appena poche ora di ascolto, un membro del pubblico di questa stazione radio, accasciato e con lo sguardo vitreo, può sentire réclame sia registrate che lette dal vivo della Green Light Financial, la Hms Capital, la Home Field Financial, il Lenox National Lending, lo U.S. Mortgage Capital, Cresting Funding, Home Savings Mortgage, Advantix Lending. Prestiti vitalizi ipotecari, ammortizzazione negativa, tariffe personalizzate, tassi di nteresse, intermediari finanziari… da dove vengono tutte queste aziende? Cosa faceva questa gente cinque anni fa? Per quale motifivo quello di Kfi è visto come un pubblico così spiccatamente maturo e pronto per il rifinanziamento? Betterloans.com, lendigtree.com, Union Bank of California, bethebroker.com, e così via all’infinito.

Sat Jun 27
“ the monetary remedies for the financial crisis create the potential for trading profits by reducing the banks’ cost of funds. While this appears offensive to ordinary people, it is nonetheless desirable, because it recapitalises banks via the back door. FT.com / Columnists / John Plender - Fading political will has let banks off the hook
“ Jackson’s death is the first of its kind in the digital music era. By Friday morning his albums accounted for the entire top 10 on Amazon.com and seven of the top 10 albums on Apple’s iTunes store. FT.com / World - Uncertainty surrounds Jackson estate
“ This will surprise those familiar with his role in organising the loan that funded the UK government’s bail-out of British slave owners when colonial slavery was abolished in the 1830s. It was the biggest bail-out of an industry as a percentage of annual government expenditure – dwarfing last year’s rescue of the banking sector. FT.com / UK - Rothschild and Freshfields founders had links to slavery, papers reveal
Fri Jun 26
“ At the height of the financial crisis, when UBS debt was trading at about 70 cents on the dollar, accounting rules perversely enabled the bank to book this notional fall in its liabilities as a gain. Now, as the bank’s outlook brightens, so has the price of its debt risen. As a result, the bank has had to reverse the gain it once booked and count it as a loss. How ironic.

Che belli gli IASB…

FT.com / Lex / Financial services & property - UBS equity placing
“ Non-financial groups raised almost $887bn in the bond markets in the first half, 64 per cent more than the same period last year when $540.3bn was raised, according to data from Dealogic.

Will corporate bond be the next bubble?

FT.com / Companies / Banks - M&A activity lowest in five years

Tue Jun 23
“ HRE said its profits would be burdened by at least a “high three-digit million”-euro hit in the second quarter, caused by further risk provisions on real estate loans. FT.com / Companies / Financials - Hypo Real Estate warns of heavy losses
FT.com / Global Economy - OECD warns on pensions crisis
“ If I were a bank I would be gathering up all the furniture to use as collateral to take part. FT.com / Brussels - ECB set for record ‘stimulus by stealth’
Tue Jun 16
“ The US authorities also plan to stop credit rating agencies from assigning the same types of ratings to structured credit products that are assigned to corporate and sovereign bonds, meaning there would be no more AAA-rated subprime securities. Contracts would be standardised to ease comparability and trades included in an electronic database currently used for corporate bonds. Sponsors would be required to stand behind their securities by providing warranties as to the origination and the underwriting standards on the loans. Credit ratings agencies – most of which are paid by the issuers to rate securities – would have to strengthen their policies for handling conflicts of interest. They would have to develop a new vocabulary to rate structured credit – a move intended to underscore the fact that a triple A rating on a corporate bond and on a mortgage-backed security mean very different things.

Era ora…

FT.com / US / Economy & Fed - Treasury plans strict rules for securitisation