Predictably the bully-boy chorus, shouting insults and threats at the Greek people, has begun to swell. One of the UKs best known Tory Bully-boys, Ken Clark, Justice Secretary(!), recently described those Greek politicians who are opposed to the terms of the EU enforced austerity measures, as “cranky extremists”. The object of this jibe was, of …
‘Cranky Extremists’ – The Bully-boy Chorus begins. Read More »
Another quick note this to update the two part post on ETFs, ETF’s – The Next Accident Waiting to Happen, and ETF’s Part 2 that I wrote a little while ago. Towards the end of part 2 I wrote …ETF shares are themselves traded in the markets the ETFs are following, as are the …
Just a very quick note. Moodys just downgraded 26 Italian banks. I don’t think these will be the last. In fact I wonder if the extent of the downgrades that will flow from any Greek default and certainly from any further defiance in Spain has really been priced in by the banks. I tend to …
Headline in the FT “Spain to force banks to set aside €30bn.” This is a bad joke. One which ordinary Spanish people are going to pay for in blood. First, €30bn is a joke because it is not enough and the Spanish central bank and the government know it. Second, 30bn of what? The Spanish …
Just a snap shot of how well our fearless leaders’ solutions are working. The Milan Index MIB Its highest ever point was 44 364 on the week of 14 May 2007 Its lowest ever was 12 895 on the week of 2nd March 2009 Today 8 …
“I’m a banker just doing God’s work.” Lloyd Blankfein. CEO Goldman Sachs Nov. 2009 quoted in The Times. Last week I had a long conversation with a very old friend of mine who is now a Director of Youth and Family Services in one of NYC’s boroughs. We hear so much about how Wall Street …
So far so vanilla. Now lets look at how, as the ETF market has grown, the clever boys and girls of finance have found ‘innovative’ ways of pumping those ETFs up a bit, just like they did to Securities. Use of Derivatives in ‘Synthetic’ ETFs The main innovation in ETFs has been the creation of what are …
Where will the next point of instability be? Not what will trigger the next liquidity and credit crunch and cause the next landslide of panic selling and losses. We can already see many candidates for the trigger. But what will be the mechanism by which it is amplified and spread? I think that in a …
Another update from Switzerland. Sometimes people forget the point of the story of King Midas. And by forgetting, they make the same mistake as Midas. How often have you heard someone say, “He has the Midas touch you know”, meaning he’s rich and knows how to get richer. Whereas the story of Midas is how once …
There are so many reasons for believing that the European ‘recovery’ plan is not working now and will continue to not work no matter how long we are forced to subsidize it. Today we can add one more reason – Mr Francois Hollande is now the favourite to beat Mr Sarkozy and become France’s next …
