“All the news that fits, we print!”
This is the news summary from mainstream media sources (MSM), blogs, financial professionals and our analysis. We provide this to give you a short overview of what is happening in the world based on some of this blog’s themes (international finance, charts, markets, and so on). Please comment so we can improve our selection to make this section useful.
Global summary
U.S. markets improved on hope for stabilization of the banking sector. Despite huge drops in Citigroup and Bank of America, it appears that the soon to be released stimulus will do something to boost the sector. Strangely, retail earnings also gave a lift to the market. Discounters Wal-Mart, Target and Ross have all met or beat expectations despite the general collapse in sentiment among higher tier retailers and large corporates like Microsoft and Cisco. The Dow closed up 1.34%, S&P up 1.64%, gold and oil were off slightly.
Alternative Assets
- The list of clients swindled in the Bernie Madoff ponzi scheme was released. The U.K. Telegraph [1] has a good article with a summary of the famous names. We have a copy of the full PDF list on our Scribd archive [2] if you want the full 162 pages.
International Markets
- It seems there are two schools of thought on Russia’s future. Jim Rogers gave an interview stating he believes Russia will break apart [3]. While he gave no specific timeline, Rogers cites the Central Bank’s rouble corridor as the root cause of the potential instability.
- Sort-of countering Rogers’ view is Steen Jakobsen who sees another bout with 1990s style hyperinflation in Russia [4] (something we’ve described on this blog before [5]), but investment opportunity in a few years once Western markets change from deflation to hyperinflation themselves.
Politics
- Perhaps an attempt is being made to mollify Paul Volcker, an Obama adviser who has largely been sidelined by Larry Summers and Tim Geithner. President Obama, with Volcker at his side, is expected to announce an economic recovery panel [6] modeled on the lines of the foreign intelligence advisory board.
- Bloomberg reports that the stimulus package bank executive pay caps are more PR stunt than reality [7]. The caps will not apply to already received monies. Also, executives can be compensated in ways other than salary (boats, cars, jets and other perks). Finally, the treasury department will retain discretion to decide who is executive enough to fall under the salary caps and who to whom they should not apply. Clusterstock calls the pay caps a “joke” [8].
From the Blogosphere
- William Buiter at Maverecon has a new term to describe the U.S. and U.K. – submerging market [9]. Buiter argues that the crisis of leadership accompanying the financial crisis drives the “developed” economies down to the realm of corruption and debt seen in other “emerging” markets. Submerging market [9], a phrase I think we will, unfortunately, be seeing more of.
So from all of us in the submerging world,