UBSboss wants to buy its way out of government bad bank deal September 28, 2009 UBS chief executive Oswald Grubel yesterday said that the bank is aiming to sever its ties with the Swiss government by buying its way out of a “bad bank deal”. UBS is currently paying expensive rates on the bad bank scheme for protection against big losses on its toxic assets. But its plans to ditch [...]
Beware: we could soon face new bubble September 24, 2009 UNTIL recently, the worry about quantitative easing was that it was not working well enough, a view which has long stuck me as excessively pessimistic. But in recent days several top economists have started to express fears the policy may actually have worked too well and that all of the liquidity being injected into the [...]
American unemployment easing but August home sales worse than hoped September 24, 2009 FEWER Americans filed new claims for jobless benefits last week compared to the previous week, but sales of previously owned homes in the US unexpectedly fell in August, disappointing both analysts and the markets yesterday and indicating that the recovery will be slow. Figures from the US Labor department showed yesterday that new claims for [...]
D-DAY FOR RATINGS AGENCIES September 23, 2009 RATING agency Moody’s will enter the firing line today, when one of its former executives tells a congressional hearing that the company was giving inflated ratings to securities as early as this year. Eric Kolchinsky will also tell the US House Oversight and Government Reform Committee that Moody’s puts revenues from its clients before the [...]
Fed sounds upbeat on economy September 23, 2009 US CENTRAL bank the Federal Reserve yesterday left interest rates unchanged, as it issued a statement boosting hopes that the world’s biggest economy is emerging from recession. The Fed said it is to keep rates ultra-low for some time to support the post-slump recovery. Short-term interest rates were kept at an all-time low of 0 [...]
NEW YORK REPORT September 23, 2009 US stocks fell yesterday as investors worried the Federal Reserve is closer to pulling back on extraordinary measures to inject funding to shore up the economy. The Fed’s policy-setters met and kept interest rates unchanged, as expected, but they also said the US central bank would slow its programme of purchasing mortgage debt to its [...]
Baltic blues disperse as strength returns September 22, 2009 SINCE the start of the financial crisis, the Baltic states have cast a long shadow over their Scandinavian and Eastern European neighbours. Swedish banks, which lent heavily to the Baltic states in euros, now find themselves running a high risk of loan default. Sweden’s Swedbank, which is the Nordic bank most heavily exposed to the [...]
City of London Police launch appeal to capture organised crime group September 21, 2009 THE City of London Police yesterday appealed for the public to help catch two men believed to part of an organised crime group responsible for ten of thousands of pounds worth of theft. The force responsible for law and order in the Square Mile said that the men were caught on CCTV stealing nearly £5,000 [...]
US sees rise in loan defaults September 21, 2009 A MEASURE of the US economy’s prospects scaled a one-and-a-half-year high in August but a record rise in home loan defaults cast doubts on the durability of the recovery. The Conference Board yesterday said its index of leading economic indicators rose 0.6 per cent to 102.5, the highest level since January 2008. It had advanced [...]
Long-term incentives no panacea for City September 20, 2009 SLOWLY but surely, the US and the European positions on regulating bonuses are becoming more similar. At the risk of courting unpopularity, it is therefore worth injecting a few facts into a discussion which to date has been characterised by hysteria and demagoguery rather than reason. It is true and deplorable that some bankers were [...]