Meta
Categories
- accounting
- Announcements
- architecture
- art
- auctions
- bailouts
- banking
- bankruptcy
- ben stein watch
- blogonomics
- bonds and loans
- charts
- china
- cities
- climate change
- commercial property
- commodities
- consumers
- consumption
- corporatespeak
- credit ratings
- crime
- Culture
- Davos 2008
- Davos 2009
- defenestrations
- demographics
- derivatives
- design
- development
- drugs
- Econoblog
- economics
- education
- emerging markets
- employment
- energy
- entitlements
- eschatology
- euro
- facial hair
- fashion
- Film
- Finance
- fiscal and monetary policy
- food
- foreign exchange
- fraud
- gambling
- geopolitics
- governance
- healthcare
- hedge funds
- holidays
- housing
- humor
- Humour
- iceland
- IMF
- immigration
- infrastructure
- insurance
- intellectual property
- investing
- journalism
- labor
- language
- law
- leadership
- leaks
- M&A
- Media
- milken 2008
- Not economics
- pay
- personal finance
- philanthropy
- pirates
- Politics
- Portfolio
- prediction markets
- private banking
- private equity
- privatization
- productivity
- publishing
- race
- rants
- regulation
- remainders
- research
- Restaurants
- Rhian in Antarctica
- risk
- satire
- science
- shareholder activism
- sovereign debt
- sports
- statistics
- stocks
- taxes
- technocrats
- technology
- trade
- travel
- Uncategorized
- water
- wealth
- world bank
Archives
- March 2023
- August 2022
- July 2022
- June 2022
- May 2022
- December 2021
- November 2021
- October 2021
- September 2021
- August 2021
- July 2021
- June 2021
- May 2021
- April 2021
- December 2020
- November 2020
- October 2020
- September 2020
- August 2020
- July 2020
- June 2020
- May 2020
- April 2020
- March 2020
- February 2020
- January 2020
- December 2019
- November 2019
- October 2019
- September 2019
- August 2019
- July 2019
- June 2019
- May 2019
- April 2019
- March 2019
- February 2019
- January 2019
- December 2018
- November 2018
- October 2018
- September 2018
- August 2018
- July 2018
- June 2018
- May 2018
- April 2018
- March 2018
- February 2018
- January 2018
- December 2017
- November 2017
- October 2017
- September 2017
- August 2017
- July 2017
- June 2017
- May 2017
- April 2017
- March 2017
- February 2017
- January 2017
- December 2016
- November 2016
- October 2016
- September 2016
- August 2016
- July 2016
- June 2016
- May 2016
- April 2016
- March 2016
- February 2016
- January 2016
- December 2015
- November 2015
- October 2015
- September 2015
- August 2015
- July 2015
- June 2015
- May 2015
- April 2015
- March 2015
- February 2015
- January 2015
- December 2014
- November 2014
- October 2014
- September 2014
- August 2014
- July 2014
- June 2014
- May 2014
- December 2012
- August 2012
- June 2012
- March 2012
- April 2011
- August 2010
- June 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- September 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- February 2005
- January 2005
- December 2004
- November 2004
- October 2004
- September 2004
- August 2004
- July 2004
- June 2004
- May 2004
- April 2004
- March 2004
- February 2004
- January 2004
- December 2003
- November 2003
- October 2003
- September 2003
- August 2003
- July 2003
- June 2003
- May 2003
- April 2003
- March 2003
- February 2003
- January 2003
- December 2002
- November 2002
- October 2002
- September 2002
- August 2002
- July 2002
- June 2002
- May 2002
- March 2002
- February 2002
- January 2002
- December 2001
- November 2001
- October 2001
- September 2001
- August 2001
- July 2001
- June 2001
- May 2001
- April 2001
- March 2001
- February 2001
- January 2001
- December 2000
- September 2000
- July 2000
- March 2000
- July 1999
Category Archives: banking
RBS Acquisition of ABN Amro More Likely Than Ever
In the battle for ABN Amro, the consortium of RBS, Fortis, and Santander has now clearly bested its rival, Barclays. The RBS consortium’s bid is about 20% higher than Barclays’ bid, thanks largely to Barclays’ sinking stock price, and Barclays … Continue reading
Morgan Stanley’s Email Problem
Morgan Stanley has been fined $12.5 million for not providing emails. The Wall Street journal also notes that the company was also fined $15 million in 2005 for not providing emails. It doesn’t note that Morgan Stanley was ordered to … Continue reading
Posted in banking, law, technology
Comments Off on Morgan Stanley’s Email Problem
How Deteriorating Crediworthiness Can Make You Millions (If You’re a Bank)
It’s not quite as laughable as it might seem at first glance that the latest tranche of investment-bank earnings reports showed hundreds of millions of dollars in profits from the fact that those banks’ bonds had fallen in value. Morgan … Continue reading
Posted in banking
Comments Off on How Deteriorating Crediworthiness Can Make You Millions (If You’re a Bank)
Bear Earnings Bad, Market Response Good
Bear Stearns’ earnings today were atrocious. Never mind the fact that sales and trading revenue slumped by an eye-popping 88%; Bear also, uniquely, saw its investment-banking revenues fall as well. Interestingly, the bank’s stock is unchanged in early trading, and … Continue reading
Posted in banking
Comments Off on Bear Earnings Bad, Market Response Good
Goldman’s Stunning Earnings
Hank Paulson surely has a hint of a smile on his face this morning. Even as he earnestly tries to protect Main Street from suffering too much as a result of the Wall Street crunch, in the back of his … Continue reading
Posted in banking
Comments Off on Goldman’s Stunning Earnings
The Sunny Side of Morgan Stanley’s Earnings
Morgan Stanley’s stock price might be down today in the wake of disappointing earnings, but I don’t think that these results really counteract the relatively good news from Lehman brothers yesterday, and I still have that weirdly good feeling I … Continue reading
Posted in banking
Comments Off on The Sunny Side of Morgan Stanley’s Earnings
The Sunny Side of Lehman’s Earnings
The Lehman earnings look weirdly different now, in the aftermath of the 50bp rate cut, than they did this morning, when most of the market was expecting just 25bp. Back then, John Carney was doing his best Old Curmudgeon act, … Continue reading
Posted in banking
Comments Off on The Sunny Side of Lehman’s Earnings
Northern Rock: No Need to Panic
In the Times of London today, Anatole Kaletsky worries about the magnitude
of a potential mass
liquidation of Northern Rock’s liabilities:
Posted in banking
Comments Off on Northern Rock: No Need to Panic
Metaphor of the Day
Justin Urquhart-Stewart of Seven Investment Management, quoted by the BBC: "You have to look at all these bad loans as a bit like a blancmange that’s been hit very heavily by a spade and it’s gone everywhere."
Posted in banking
Comments Off on Metaphor of the Day
Banks’ Capital in the Era of Re-Intermediation
Charles Goodhart says in the FT today that there’s loads of money sloshing around the banking system; what’s missing is not liquidity, but capital. He explains: Just as the central bank is lender of last resort to banks, so banks … Continue reading
Posted in banking, regulation
Comments Off on Banks’ Capital in the Era of Re-Intermediation
ATM Fees as Bully Tactic
In the literature, the question of ATM fees is generally considered to be a regulatory problem: should they be banned? In the real world, Bank of America has raised its ATM fee to $3. Which is the kind of thing … Continue reading
Posted in banking
Comments Off on ATM Fees as Bully Tactic
The Northern Rock Bailout
What to make of the Northern Rock bailout? To me, it looks like textbook central banking on the part of the Bank of England. Mervyn King, the BofE’s chief, has no particular interest in cutting interest rates or otherwise bailing … Continue reading
Citibank Refuses Hand-Drawn Check
People don’t pay by check nearly as much as they used to, because checks are
time-consuming, inconvenient, and not in the slightest bit fun or interesting.
But what if that changed? What if checks became time-consuming, inconvenient,
and fun and interesting? After all, when you write a check, it doesn’t
need to come out of one of those official checkbooks.
Continue reading
Posted in banking
Comments Off on Citibank Refuses Hand-Drawn Check
Whither Countrywide?
While I’m on the subject of bank valuations, it’s worth revisiting Countrywide,
which is now languishing at about $16.50 per share and looking
for a second white knight to come in and provide much-needed operating
capital.
Continue reading
Barclays: Going Cheap
The market really doesn’t want Barclays to buy ABN Amro. After Barclays president
Bob Diamond all
but threw in the towel yesterday, the bank’s shares
are up 20p, or 3.45%, today.
Continue reading
Citi in Japan
A Japanese listing makes sense for Citigroup.
Continue reading
Why Goldman Might Sell its Loans at a Discount
The Breaking Views column in today’s WSJ features a column
by Lauren Silva originally published last Thursday. "Can Goldman Win on
Debt?" is the headline on the piece, which asks whether Goldman Sachs is
"about to turn the credit crunch to its advantage".
Continue reading
Posted in banking, bonds and loans
Comments Off on Why Goldman Might Sell its Loans at a Discount
Nostalgia for Glass Steagall
Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism submits: Boy, is sentiment changing. The latest indicator: an article in MarketWatch bemoaning the demise of Glass Steagall, the law enacted in 1933 that separated commercial banking from investment banking. The article by Thomas Kostigen … Continue reading
Posted in banking, Media, regulation
Comments Off on Nostalgia for Glass Steagall
Extreme Measures III: Cambiz Alikhani at the Financial Times
Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism submits: As concern about tightening conditions in the credit markets and the continued erosion of the US supbrime and broader housing market has grown, so too have calls for Extreme Measures to combat these snowballing … Continue reading
Posted in banking, bonds and loans, hedge funds, regulation
Comments Off on Extreme Measures III: Cambiz Alikhani at the Financial Times
Commercial Real Estate Prices May Drop 15% in Next Year
Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism submits: Experts warn that the boom in commercial real estate prices, fueled by cheap credit, is going sharply into reverse. Fitch had noted as early as April, and again in July that commercial real estate … Continue reading
Posted in banking, bonds and loans, investing
Comments Off on Commercial Real Estate Prices May Drop 15% in Next Year
Brad DeLong Argues That Central Banks Should Cut Interest Rates
Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism submits: It’s always dangerous for mere mortals to take issue with Serious Economists, but let’s start with Professor of Economics at U.C Berkeley Brad DeLong’s thesis (hat tip Mark Thoma): The fact that there is … Continue reading
Posted in banking, bonds and loans, economics, fiscal and monetary policy
Comments Off on Brad DeLong Argues That Central Banks Should Cut Interest Rates
Will Asking Mortgage Servicers to Modify Mortgages Have Much Impact?
Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism submits: Bloomberg tells us that the Fed and the Treasury made a joint statement today asking mortgage servicers to take a more proactive stance, identify borrowers in danger of gong into default, and offer loan … Continue reading
Posted in banking, bonds and loans, housing, regulation
Comments Off on Will Asking Mortgage Servicers to Modify Mortgages Have Much Impact?
Cash-Out Refis: The Missing Actor in the Subprime Drama
Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism submits: Ah, fall is upon us, and with it comes the spectacle of renewed discussion of what to do about the snowballing subprime/housing mess. Members of Congress will compete for air time to Bemoan the … Continue reading
Posted in banking, bonds and loans, housing, Media
6 Comments
Bundesbank President Weber vs. White House on Housing Crisis
Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism submits: Apologies for the heavy reliance on the Financial Times today, but the pickings elsewhere are meager indeed. The FT has an interesting juxtaposition of stores on its website tonight. The lead story, from the … Continue reading
Posted in banking, bonds and loans, fiscal and monetary policy, housing, regulation
Comments Off on Bundesbank President Weber vs. White House on Housing Crisis
Fed Governor Mishkin Urges Swift Action to Combat Housing Price Decline
Yves Smith at Naked Capitalism submits: In a paper presented at the Fed’s Jackson Hole conference, Federal Reserve governor Frederic Mishkin urged central bankers to respond quickly and aggressively to large falls in housing prices, arguing that it was less … Continue reading
Posted in banking, bonds and loans, fiscal and monetary policy, housing
1 Comment