Fed and Asset Bubbles – How Hard is It?

The Fed is reluctantly thinking that it might consider taking action against asset bubbles in future. Chariman Ben Bernanke still says it is hard to determine a bubble.
Really? When tech stocks were trading at 50-100X earnings? When people in booming states like California were buying houses at 5-6X their income? When mortgage brokers were offering […]

Bankers Still Reluctant To Accept Regulation in Crisis

Last month at The Forum in London, the MiFID conference sponsored by JWG-IT, David Wright, deputy director general, EU Commission, told bankers they should take the current financial crisis seriously.  “The firms that created this mess have to step up to the plate. This is not the time for firms to seek de minimus solutions or […]

Backlash against modern trading?

As the equity trading industry gathered at TradeTech in Paris this week to discuss the latest developments in terms of liquidity pools, new trading venues, smart order routing or low latency, it is interesting to note comments made about financial markets by European political and business leaders in recent weeks.
The departing chairman of insurance giant […]

Bail out the Banks, But — The Observer

The London-based Observer supports bailing out the banks, but with strict conditions.
British banks deny that they have messed up and are asking for state rescue, notes The Observer, which disagrees with their assessment.
“But the reality is that British banks are guilty of systematic arrogance and complacency. They relied on credit from each other to pump […]

Krugman – Paulson and His Dilbert Strategy

US Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson’s proposals are catching a lot of flak from NY Times columnist and Princeton economist Paul Krugman
            Although he works in Princeton, nearly 200 miles from Washington, Krugman routinely beats the pants off the Washington press corps by reading legislation and budgets, paying attention when the Bush administration gives five different […]

Financial tech on the cheap

Alison Ebbage’s piece on IT budgets in the March issue of Banking Technology, looks at the potential impact of the credit crunch on IT spend, offset by a desire to use technology to drive efficiency.
There are indeed several issues that could drive firms to keep investing despite the gloomy times ahead. For instance, recent circumstances […]

Bear Stearns: let’s blame Basel

While the nation was embroiled in the Spitzer scandal, a fire sale was in the works. JPMorgan Chase bought Bear Stearns for bupkas – $2 a share, to be exact – the latter having been hit big time by the sub-prime debacle and credit crunch. The Federal Reserve provided special financing for the deal, and […]

Sub Prime Mortgages: the cartoon

This PowerPoint cartoon has been doing the rounds for a few weeks in the US. It was drawn to my attention by a rather senior Brit banker, who describes it as “frighteningly accurate”.
The Sub-Prime Primer Cartoon
Be warned: there is some robust language - as you might expect from bankers caught with their parts in a […]