- FT Alphaville – The world’s 50 ’safest’ banks
UBS as one of the safest? rubbish.
- Japan suffers first trade deficit since 1980 – guardian.co.uk
Exports fell 16.4% last year to ¥71.1 trillion as makers of consumer electronics and cars – the driving force of the economy – counted the cost of plummeting demand in the US, Europe and China
- U.K. Budget Deficit Reaches Highest Level Since World War II – Bloomberg.com
- Bank of England encouraged by results of quantitative easing, MPC minutes show – Telegraph
Bank of England policymakers noted “encouraging” early signs from the unprecedented £75bn quantitative easing programme, minutes of the last interest rate meeting showed on Wednesday.
- Lloyd’s to buy back £100m of its debt – Telegraph
Lloyd’s of London, the world’s largest insurance market, has offered to buy back up to £100m worth of its debt.
- Fannie, Freddie Defaults Rise as Borrowers Cite Lower Income – Bloomberg.com
This puts paid to the view that Prime-related securities should be marked down. Will they be? Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac mortgage delinquencies among the most creditworthy homeowners rose 50 percent in a month as borrowers said drops in income or too much debt caused them to fall behind, according to data from federal regulators.
- KC Fed Chair Hoenig Testimony before Congresional Joint Econmic Commitee
this is a pdf worthy of reading as Hoenig is NOT singing the same tune as Bernanke or the Obama Administration. When he is a voting member of the FOMC, it will be interesting.
- AppleInsider | iPhone Software 3.0 may offer voice control, dialing – report
hat tip Paul Kedosky
- Goldman Sachs Raises China Economic Growth Forecasts – Bloomberg.com
Green shoots in China. You will recall I had predicted a 2% y-o-y growth rate at China’s growth nadir this year, something Marshall Auerback never believed. He bet me dinner that this would neer come to pass. Will I be taking im out to Smith & Wollensky’s come 2010?
- Property Values – What You Get For… $700,000 – NYTimes.com
quite a lot actually! If you buy in the right place
- Willem Buiter’s Maverecon – The gang that couldn’t shoot straight: dosh-for-bangers, courtesy of the UK Treasury
I don’t agree with this take because the subsidies are mostly pushing demand forward. There will be in toto less overproduction over say a 5-year time horizon. And this over-production may well be offset by the reduction in emissions of the replacement vehicles. he other bits about lower deand before and after the scheme is in place strike me as correct.
- Coercive Interrogation Was Common in Iraq, Senate Report Says – Bloomberg.com
Forced nudity, stress positions and police dogs were commonly used by military interrogators to intimidate prisoners at the Abu Ghraib military prison in Iraq, a Senate panel has concluded.
- Seven Essential Applications For Bloggers Using Windows – Pro Blogger
Great apps: and I use evernote and feeddemon
- Lifehacker – Google Profiles Give You Control Over What Google Says About You – Google Profiles
Last week we pointed out that the new Google Profile page comes complete with a custom URLs designed to make it easy for people to find your profile. Apparently that was a first step in bringing more prominence to your Google profile; as of today, those profile pages will start appearing on the first page of Google search results.
- 8 Questions to Ask BEFORE Hiring a Financial Planner
- Navigate the Archives of any Blog in an Interactive Timeline
Google today introduced a new timeline based blog reader that could be a perfect fit for people who follow a very limited number of blogs. And it’s great for researching blogs as well.
- How to Download & Save Embedded Pictures from an Outlook Email
I don’t understand why but Microsoft Outlook doesn’t provide an easy mechanism for users to download images that may be embedded inside an email message. You can right-click an inline image in Outlook and copy it to the clipboard but there’s no option to you save that picture on to a local folder.
- Aegon zal staatssteun terugbetalen – NRC Handelsblad
American financial institutions are not the only ones paying back state aid. This Dutch insurance company is looking to do the same