Monthly Archives: October 2008

Lehman Europe and Prime Brokerage Counterparty Risk

Posted on October 31, 2008 by Felix

Euromoney has allowed free access to its November cover story on Lehman Brothers Europe for this weekend only, so go there now and read it while you can. It starts off at much the same place as John Hempton’s blog … Continue reading →

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Unsympathetic Demographic of the Day: HENRYs

Posted on October 31, 2008 by Felix

Do you pity the HENRYs ("high earners, not rich yet")? If you’re Shawn Tully you do. In an astonishing feat of reporting, he’s discovered that if you ask people whether they feel rich, especially if they work hard and have … Continue reading →

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The 50bp Lower Bound on Interest Rates

Posted on October 31, 2008 by Felix

There’s been lots of talk in recent days of the "zero bound" on the Fed funds rate — which is exactly where the Taylor Rule would put it. But the real bound might be halfway between here and there, at … Continue reading →

Posted in fiscal and monetary policy | 1 Comment

Extra Credit, Thursday Edition

Posted on October 31, 2008 by Felix

It’s time: "The Economist does not have a vote, but if it did, it would cast it for Mr Obama. We do so wholeheartedly." The £5,000bn bailout: "£5,000bn has implicitly or explicitly been made available by central banks and governments … Continue reading →

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Blogonomics: The Cost-Benefit of Bloggers

Posted on October 31, 2008 by Felix

Thanks very much to Tyler and Brad for the kind words; I hope to be here for a while yet. But Tyler also makes an interesting point about blogonomics: Media, like new library books, are being hurt by the downturn … Continue reading →

Posted in blogonomics | 1 Comment

Chart of the Day: The Russia-Brazil Spread

Posted on October 30, 2008 by Felix

After writing about my BRIC decoupling thesis, I asked the friendly chaps at Markit if they could share with me the 5-year CDS spreads for the four countries in question. It turns out that India isn’t really much of a … Continue reading →

Posted in bonds and loans, derivatives, emerging markets | Leave a comment

The Homeownership Bubble

Posted on October 30, 2008 by Felix

The US goverment still, it seems, thinks that encouraging homeownership is a very good idea: Four former secretaries of the Department of Housing and Urban Development told a packed meeting room… that just because the financial system is flawed doesn’t … Continue reading →

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When Banks Stop Underwriting

Posted on October 30, 2008 by Felix

Citigroup and Credit Suisse are so damaged by the financial crisis, it seems, that they’ve given up underwriting loans to their biggest and most valuable corporate clients, including Nestle and Nokia. Instead, they’re linking those loans to the companies’ CDS … Continue reading →

Posted in banking, bonds and loans, derivatives | Leave a comment

Economic and Financial Bad News

Posted on October 30, 2008 by Felix

If you’re one of those people who needs a negative GDP number to convince yourself that we’re in a recession, here you go. But the headline -0.3% figure isn’t the worst bit: that would be the 8.7% fall in disposable … Continue reading →

Posted in bonds and loans, economics, fiscal and monetary policy, housing, insurance | Leave a comment

Extra Credit, Wednesday Edition

Posted on October 29, 2008 by Felix

Treasury, FDIC Crafting Plan to Rework Millions of Mortgages: We need a lot more detail than this before working out what to make of it. So how many hedgies did Porsche really kill? Not as many as you might think. … Continue reading →

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