markit © fintag News comments: Most people haven’t got a clue as to what the London Whale was doing. And none more so than the senior management at JP Morgan. JPM pretty much invented Value at Risk and time and time again it has been shown to be useless. But this is not important as what is a few billion to a bank with a tier 1 capital of over USD120bn? Bruno Iksil is still employed, according to the FSA (fsa link), and may lose his job so Dimon can save face. Another french engineer hiding his actions in C++ and thrashing around with little guidance or risk management oversight....
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the CIO © jpmorganchase News comments: JP Morgan wholeheartedly created the CDS market and its whale like monster is coming back to haunt it. Ms Drew, who I once shared a taxi with before she became a member of the limo only class, is a very smart women who seems to still believe it is 2007. Not only does she earn more than Bob Diamond (that must hurt) but she still doesn’t know the difference between hedging and speculating. So whilst Dimon boasts about the conservatism of JP Morgan, it is acting just like every other bank in trying to find alpha in everything and nothing. Having...
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short shorts © favim.com News comments: Here are two reasons not to be American. Firstly, if you are just about to IPO and want to avoid some nasty tax on your capital gains you need to reside in Singapore. Take the co-founder of Facebook which is about to IPO at Groupon / Fortress type silly prices (bloomberg) for he is doing just that. Secondly, if you fancy investing in something outside of the USA you will find it’s impossible. (toronto star) Over zealous Obama and his FATCA legislation are effectively forcing Swiss wealth managers, bog standard funds and private equity...
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fcker © fintag News comments: The FSA, as you know, are to be renamed the FCA (oops, the acronym police were asleep at the wheel… FCAr … you couldn’t make this up …). Not only can the new logo be revealed, but it transpires the FCA will be the FSA with just a different logo. All the smart people will get to join the PRA and live in its nice offices off Moorgate whilst the rest will sit exactly as they are in Canary Wharf but with a new C. A great way to save tax payers money. But that is unfair. The FSA is a profit center. The FSA have turned into the SEC. They...
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loonie tunes© fintag News comments: My predictions of the Euro collapsing by the end of 2011 were scuppered by expense lovin’ eurocrats who muscled into Greece and Italy and helped avoid themselves being out of work by using the ECB as an ATM. And suddenly its all changing. The lunatics are taking over the asylum: Greece is burning and its child like polititians are saying no to the hand that is feeding them. Spain’s accounting fiddles are coming to fruition and its emperor has no real estate clothes are pushing its banks into the ECB’s gloves of love. Netherlands...
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useless © fintag News comments: Sarkozy, France’s Tony Bling Blair, is no more. It is good to see the europhile lose but his replacement is going to be a nightmare for all of us. Chatting to the second most detested person outside of an Investment Banker, my mate at Foxtons told me there has been a surge in interest in Fulham by Parisians mostly wanting to escape the clutches of Hollande. The man is no Obama socialist but a revolutionary. Be prepared for a rocky euro ride in the coming months as Merkel and Cameron enjoy a love in whilst the blancmange stirs trouble with...
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early exit © suicide News comments: As an economist I am as confused as every other economist. Something isn’t quite right: In the early 1980′s UB40 sang a song called 1 in 10 about 10% unemployment (youtube). It was bad news then. Such news today in Spain, where over 50% of young people are idle, would be rejoiced as would the 11% unemployed collectively in Europe. Iceland has near full employment. How did that happen? (rtt) The USA and Europe are ageing very nicely. Whereas fags and booze were the instruments of old people culling, Lycra and organic food are helping us...
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pension please © fintag News comments: Like many, I listened to the BBC Today Programme Lecture with interest (bbc). The Bank of England were to justify why they messed up and what they planned to do in the future. It appears the Bank of England were screaming before 2008 that problems were afoot. They also said nobody foresaw a crash as the growth was in a low inflation environment (thanks to China). It was the complete opposite. I recall the Bank of England were very quiet and just tweaked rates and there were many screaming a crash was imminent due to the over leverage of everything...
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Fixer © fintag News comments: Political correctness and the status quo are getting in the way of sorting out the dire economics of Europe. Ever the one for ranting, today it is time for fixes: 1. Ban all goods and services from China 2. Force all unemployed people > 1 year into National Service / Community Service 3. Reduce tier 1 capital for banks to 5% and force banks to recapitalise through rights issues 4. Banks must not have more than 10% of their market (however defined) 5. Greece, Spain, Portugal and Italy to follow Iceland by abandoning Land Rovers 6. Discourage people...
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Shadow © wonga News comments: Banking is dead. Long live the Shadow. The UK used to have hundreds of banks offering choice, competition and relationships. Move forward to today and it has 5 dinosaur like cost machines that do not provide a useful function to society except leach tax payers money to pay for the out dated concept of bonuses. Bonuses historically were paid because salaries were low but now they are paid on top of big salaries with no risk or [Ed: Enough] While the tail between the legs FSA seeks to bolster its coffers by fining “names” and pumping out...
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