GOLDMAN PREDICTS GREAT STAGNATION September 29, 2011 THE GREAT recession is in serious danger of becoming “the Great Stagnation”, according to research published by Goldman Sachs. “Both Europe and the US are remarkably close to the typical stagnation trajectory,” the report said, calculating that there is as much as a 40 per cent chance of major parts of the West experiencing an [...]
Ban on naked CDS will backfire, says official Brussels report September 29, 2011 THE EUROPEAN Parliament is pushing ahead with plans to ban naked credit default swaps (CDS) – even though its own research has revealed the move would exacerbate market volatility. European lawmakers are expected to back a German proposal that would ban so-called “naked” CDS, where a trader buys a CDS without holding the sovereign bonds [...]
US is probing Chinese firms September 29, 2011 CHINESE stocks listed in the US plunged last night after an official said the justice department is probing accounting irregularities at such firms. Criminal and civil charges could be brought as a result of the investigation, suggested Robert Khuzami, director of enforcement at the Securities and Exchange Commission. “There are parts of the Justice Department [...]
EU is about to repeat errors of 2008 September 29, 2011 SOME people never learn. Back in 2007-08, when the sub-prime bubble burst, triggering a financial crisis and recession, many supposed experts were stumped. They simply didn’t know what to do. Their models had ceased to work. They hadn’t previously really thought about the possibility of such a nightmare scenario. There was no plan B to [...]
UK gas production drops September 29, 2011 OFFICIAL figures have shown that gas production in the North Sea has plummeted by 25 per cent just months after the Treasury’s £10bn tax raid on companies with facilities in the sea. The news is a worrying sign of an acceleration in the decline of the UK’s “indigenous” energy production. The figures show that the slump [...]
WHAT THE OTHER PAPERS SAY THIS MORNING September 29, 2011 FINANCIAL TIMES INVESTMENT BANKING FEES FALL TO TWO-YEAR LOW Investment banking fees from mergers and acquisitions and capital raising have slumped in the third quarter to lows not seen since the aftermath of the Lehman Brothers collapse. Market volatility and worries about European sovereign debt prompted a third consecutive quarterly decline in M&A activity, while [...]
S&P and Dow indices may merge September 29, 2011 McGraw-Hill Companies is in advanced talks with CME Group to merge the S&P Index business with CME’s Dow Jones Indexes, a source familiar with the situation said yesterday. Under the terms of the deal being discussed, McGraw-Hill would own the majority of the joint venture and manage it, while CME would own about 25 percent, [...]
Speed limit increased to 80mph September 29, 2011 The government said yesterday that it is considering raising the speed limit on English and Welsh motorways from 70mph to 80mph. In a move likely to prove popular with motorists but greeted with outrage by road safety groups, the Department of Transport said the limit could be raised in 2013, following a consultation with the [...]
Autonomy boss in spat with US rival September 29, 2011 MIKE Lynch, chief executive of soon-to-be-sold Autonomy, has been drawn into a bitter war of words with rival technology boss Larry Ellison. The Oracle chief accused Lynch of having a “very poor memory or lying” about a personal visit he allegedly made to Oracle’s headquarters to try to pitch Autonomy as a takeover target. Lynch [...]
Trafigura moves closer to IPO for subsidiary September 29, 2011 TRAFIGURA, one of the world’s largest commodities traders, has sold a 20 per cent stake in its oil storage business Puma Energy to Angola’s state-owned oil company, as it prepares to bring the $3.5bn (£2.2bn) subsidiary to market. The Geneva-based company said it may float Puma within the next 18 months, reducing its role to a [...]
