August 2008

With sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) trolling the world for decent places to park their overflowing coffers of cash, the Germans have decided to stop them before they start.The German government has approved legislation that would enable it…

The minutes of the Bank of England's most recent Monetary Policy Committee (MPC) meeting demonstrate that Britain's monetary policy makers are all over the shop. Most committee members voted to keep rates at 5%, but there was also a vote…

Apparently, Lehman Brothers was looking to strike a deal with a Korean Sovereign Wealth Fund (SWF) for a whopping $5 billion, but the deal fell through -- this according to the NY Post.Lehman Brothers' embattled Chief Executive Dick Fuld…

Five-year returns almost never exceed 100% (denoted by the dotted red line in the chart). There are three notable bubble periods in stocks above 100%: pre-1929, pre-1987 and pre-1999*. This is not one of those periods.

Top billing Banks’ losses and capital: The new version of the paradox of Achilles and the tortoise - VoxEU This is a post right down my alley. You've probably seen my list of Bloomberg's writedown/ capital raised tally. Well, there is a…

Talk about ugly, American Home Mortgage, an outfit which went bust two days before the credit crunch hit a year ago, is now liquidating. We knew equity holders were going to get zippo, nada, zilch, but what about creditors of the mortgage…

For those of you interested in London property prices, the Times has a good rundown borough by borough in PDF. The Royal Borough tops the list with an average price over £1.4 million followed by Westminster at over £1 million. Why would…

Top billing California bank stocks: The herd gets thinned again - LA Times The implications of this story in a state that has seen the largest drops in house prices anywhere is that many busts are going to happen in California. There is…

Kenneth Rogoff, the Harvard Professor and former IMF Chief Economist shares my view that another large U.S. financial institution will go bust. I predicted this will happen before the end of 2008. He gives no specific date, but he does go…

Andrew Smithers is an economic commentator whose book 'Valuing Wall Street' I highly recommend. He is another market economist who shares my view that a 'Buy and Hold' Strategy is not necessarily the best. But he also has an economic…