Bloomberg.com – Matthew Lynn: Five Ways to Start the Euro Rescue Operation Another summit, another messy compromise. With the euro facing renewed crisis, and with Portugal, Spain, Belgium and Italy all under the same kind of pressure that forced Greece and Ireland into a bailout, the stage was surely set for a clear and decisive… Continue reading Europe
The Financial Times – Champions of ‘new normal’ stick to their guns Pimco’s phrase “the new normal” captured the markets’ zeitgeist last year. Sluggish growth, stubbornly high unemployment and weak inflation: the predictions from one of the world’s biggest investors in May 2009 looked like they would be with us for a long time. But… Continue reading The New Normal
The Globe & Mail – We’ve seen quantitative easing before – and it didn’t work Do you remember Operation Twist? Most investors don’t, but this nearly forgotten piece of history holds important lessons for anyone trying to forecast what 2011 will hold for the North American economy. The Kennedy administration launched the operation in February… Continue reading Before QE1 or QE2, There Was Operation Twist
<Click on chart for larger image> MarketBeat (WSJ Blog) – VIX Watch: No One’s Scared. So Maybe You Should Be. A word to the wise. Keep an eye on the Chicago Board Options Exchange’s volatility index, or VIX. Earlier this afternoon it fell below 16. Those are VIX levels we haven’t seen since right before… Continue reading Sentiment Indicators
The Financial Times – Debate reopens over equity trades The US Securities and Exchange Commission had wanted a broad debate about how well US equity markets were functioning amid widespread concerns that rules had not kept up with dramatic changes in trading… Yet the focus on the flash crash has generated concerns that the bigger… Continue reading High Frequency Trading
The Financial Times – How investment banks shape up after crisis In the past decade the investment banking world was hit by a virus. Known as “Goldman envy”, it prompted the likes of Morgan Stanley, Merrill Lynch and UBS – and the now-defunct Lehman Brothers and Bear Stearns – to ratchet up risks to try… Continue reading The Changing Landscape Of Investment Banking
The Financial Times – Third of staff at RBS Coutts Singapore quit RBS Coutts, the international arm of the UK private bank, is scrambling to rebuild its flagship Singapore office after the mass resignation of one-third of its staff in the city-state. The surprise departures include about 20 key managers, as well as 50 or… Continue reading What Do You Do When A Third Of Your Staff Quits?
None Today
Barron’s – Fed and Tax Deal Lift Forecasts Events have overtaken many predictions for bonds and interest rates Prospects of stronger economic growth, driven by the Federal Reserve’s liquidity provision and the fiscal agreement forged by President Obama and Republican lawmakers, will likely send bond yields higher in 2011, according to a sampling of interest-rate… Continue reading What’s Next For Interest Rates?
<Click on picture to watch video> CBS News – 60 Minutes: State Budgets: Day of Reckoning Steve Kroft Reports On The Growing Financial Woes States Are Facing By now, just about everyone in the country is aware of the federal deficit problem, but you should know that there is another financial crisis looming involving state… Continue reading A Muni Disaster Coming?
The Orange County Register – Apartments reviving architect’s business When the economy crashed, work dried up for Thomas P. Cox Architects, a firm based in both Irvine and L.A. At one point, the firm laid off nearly all its staff. But now work is picking up, says company CEO Thomas Cox. So much so, that… Continue reading Rents And Inflation
EU leaders failed to grasp the nettle at last week’s summit, despite riots in Rome The Telegraph (UK) – Ambrose Evans-Pritchard: Self-righteous Germany must accept a euro-debt union or leave EMU If Germany and its hard-money allies genuinely wish to save the euro – which is open to doubt – they should stop posturing, face… Continue reading The New Image Of Europe?