I would say this piece in the usually venerable FT ought to be better placed in the comment section and hardly in the market insight section.  At a minimum read This Time is Different, and stick them both in the opinion section.  Eight centuries of empirical evidence or one mans irrational opinion. Japan’s mythical debt crisis | Peter Tasker – ft.com Far from the next Lehman or the next Greece, the market is rating the Japanese government as the best credit on the planet. Indeed if Sidney Homer’s classic “History of Interest Rates” is any guide, Japanese government debt commands … Continue reading Memo to the Financial Times – you were wrong to let this one get through

For the record – 2,200 pages in all its glory. Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. Chapter 11 Proceedings Examiner’s Report Jenner & Block is providing links to the Report of the Examiner in the Chapter 11 proceedings of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. The Examiner’s report is divided into nine volumes, which are reproduced below in individual Adobe Acrobat PDF files. Included in this from the introduction that sums up banking, not just investment banking.  Investment banking just happens to be an extreme version of this. Lehman’s financial plight, and the consequences to Lehman’s creditors and shareholders, was exacerbated by Lehman executives, … Continue reading The Lehman Bothers bankrupcty examiner report

The proposal to replace banks with non levered Mutual Funds was floated last December (noted on the blog here) and now here is the book.  This fits with the view of this blog for utility or limited purpose banking providing basic banking and payments services much along the lines of water and electricity.  Reliability over concern for safety. BU economist: U.S. must rethink banks | Boston Herald The basic premise of limited purpose banking, which is beginning to win over some academic adherents, is that banks should be run like mutual-fund companies, such as Boston’s Fidelity Investments, acting merely as … Continue reading “James Stewart is Dead” | New book proposes alternative bank model

Often I find news headlines are framed in political and ‘we are good and they are bad’ headlines but it is both reassuring and interesting to actually see the impacts of tinpot dictators on their countries, and how corrupt behaviour produces results is a leveling effect on the world.  This from a longer piece outlining how lack of attention and investment means Venezuela is running out of electricity.  His answer of course is to arrest everyone.  Colombia, Venezuela: Offering Power — For a Price | Stratfor (Subscription) While blaming the crisis exclusively on the weather (and ignoring years of lack … Continue reading The self levelling effect on tinpot dictators catches up eventually

This is one of those nondescript headlines that is probably the single most important one following the 2007 economic crisis.  It sets the stage for (obviously) currency shifts and (less obviously) price pressures in the west.  Those countries that import from China will pay more for those imports, and therefore will suffer currency and interest rate pressures. Beijing looks at severing dollar peg | ft.com China’s central bank chief laid the groundwork for an appreciation of the renminbi at the weekend when he described the current dollar peg as temporary, striking a more emollient tone after months of tough opposition … Continue reading China looks at severing dollar peg | and why this will be the biggest economic story of 2010