Analysts warn bailout debts may hurt Spain June 10, 2012 INTERNATIONAL Monetary Fund (IMF) boss Christine Lagarde welcomed Spain’s bailout deal as “key” to the financial sector’s future stability. But analysts warned that it may offer only temporary reprieve from the strains of the sovereign debt crisis, in part because the deal adds up-to €100bn (£81bn) to Spain’s already dangerously large public debt. “Providing a [...]
European banking union isn’t the solution to immediate euro crises June 6, 2012 WHATEVER new twist the Eurozone crisis takes, the answers always seem to be another union: economic, fiscal, political, federal – you name it. The latest in this long and somewhat misguided list is a banking union. The idea is simple: a deposit guarantee scheme and a bank resolution fund would be created at the Eurozone [...]
GLOBAL GROWTH IS WEAK BUT OIL BULLS ARE STRONG June 5, 2012 CHIEF MARKET STRATEGIST AS THE UK recovers from the long bank holiday, the whole world is feeling the hangover. Last week Spain teetered on the brink of disaster, after its planned rescue of Bankia was torn to bits by the European Central Bank. The worry now is that Spain doesn’t have the funds to bail [...]
Spain can’t save all of its banks without sinking May 31, 2012 ANYONE struggling to understand what former Spanish Prime Minister Felipe Gonzalez meant when he said his country was facing “total emergency” should take a drive through the suburbs of any medium-sized Spanish town. Lines of empty and half-built houses show exactly why the country’s banks are on their knees and why, sooner or later, Madrid [...]
JOBS of the WEEK May 30, 2012 SENIOR LEGAL DIRECTOR SINGAPORE £200k-£300k pa An accomplished lawyer is required to manage compliance for a leading investment manager’s Singapore-based operations. Candidates must have at least 10 years relevant experience. http://www.cityamcareers.com/job/12399 COMMODITY QUANTITATIVE ANALYST NEW YORK $200k-$350k pa A New York analytics house wants to grow its commodity quant team through the addition of an [...]
MEET THE ADMINISTRATORS: BDO May 29, 2012 MARK SHAW HEAD OF BUSINESS RESTRUCTURING AND INSOLVENCY SHAY BANNON PARTNER The troubled law firm’s London and Paris offices are being taken care of by Shay Bannon and Mark Shaw, business restructuring partners at BDO, as joint administrators until a core team assists in the winding-down of the business. Shaw is a London-based partner at [...]
Closure looms for critical link in London’s oil supply May 28, 2012 THE Essex oil refinery that also supplies around a fifth of the fuel requirements of London and the south-east is to close, after PwC yesterday announced that it had failed to find a buyer at the £625m price necessary to sustain the site. However, concerns over London’s petrol supply as a result of the closure [...]
RAPID RESPONSES May 28, 2012 Greek insolvency [Re: Eurozone crisis moves ever closer as Greek left gains ground, Friday] I’m not sure you can blame the Greeks for borrowing vast sums on the assumption that they had the same credit worthiness as Germany. The financial system was at fault. Having said that, the point that Greeks now have to reduce their [...]
The gold standard gives priceless insights into how to save the euro May 24, 2012 THERE is almost no economic problem for which there is not at least one precedent. Examining precedents can help guide policy makers and their advisers – if they are willing to look. But policy makers trying to deal with the euro crisis have not taken advantage of this opportunity. Many currency unions have been formed [...]
Government’s job is to shield UK taxpayers from Euro chaos May 16, 2012 WHEN a country’s president warns that its banks are in danger, and reveals that depositors are pulling out cash from their accounts at a record rate, it is time to dig out the tin hats and the cans of baked beans. Yet that was exactly what happened in Greece yesterday on another pivotal day for [...]