The banks face a future of feeble economic growth, a moribund housing market, chronically high unemployment, regulatory uncertainty and a low-rate environment for as far as the eye can see. And no industry is more tightly tethered to the macro business cycle than banking. – Bonnie Baha, AmericanBanker.com How will banks grow
“I hate share buybacks. With a passion.” Andrew Lapthorne (global head of quantitative strategy at Societe Generale) “Having that equity base shrink and starting from a relatively pessimistic point usually sets up pretty well in the long term. It gives you some hope that valuations have perhaps bottomed.
Since the early 2000’s, the popular wisdom has been that the U.S. dollar is a lost cause, sinking in value until it became one of the world’s least respected currencies. I had bought into that idea for several years. But in late 2007 I started suspecting that things had changed. So I
How did $1.2 billion disappear from the customer accounts of MF Global? Nobody knows, including (purportedly) the CEO, Mr. Corzine. When asked who could execute such a transfer, Corzine said, “I wouldn’t know probably who that person is.” Foul play is suspected and, as you’d expect, the company is under investigation. But
How dangerous is our $14 trillion debt to the financial and national security of our country? Impossible to answer unless you know who owns our debt.
The CEO of Pimco is delivering a tough message to Washington DC. He says that “Calls for a fairer system will not go away. If anything, they will spread and grow louder. The West has no choice but to strike a better balance…”
Washington should be taking note. Investors are worried more about Italian risk than risk in Namibia in South West Africa! How do I know? They’ve bid Italian debt up to 6.6%. In the meantime, Namibia’s first Eurobond issue offered bonds carrying a 5.5% coupon rate.
The smart European banks were busy dumping their bonds from the eurozone’s peripheral countries this summer. The only European banks that wouldn’t have been doing this are the ones saddled with questionable debt from their own countries.
