Credit Writedowns

It is refreshing to read the foreign press because they have decidedly different takes on issues.Whether you agree or not, it is important to hear those views. The Swiss are very negative on the U.S. and their tax fight against UBS. This…

The video linked below is a must-see piece of journalistic skepticism. The duo at Bloomberg News are discussing the recent alleged theft of trading code by a former Goldman employee Sergey Aleynikov who moved to a hedge fund called Citadel…

A few days ago I wrote a post “Japanese defend dollar’s status while China tears it down” in which I defended the Japanese support of the dollar, saying it was in no one’s interest to see a change in the currency markets right now.  I have…

Roland Koch, the leader of the German state of Hesse, has dismissed the possibility of Chinese auto manufacturer BAIC acquiring German carmaker Opel.  Below is my translation of today’s Spiegel article explaining this. Clear rejection of…

Unemployment in Spain: Two-tier flexibility - The Economist "How the burden of adjustment in Spain falls on the underprivileged" A special report on Texas: : The red and the blue - The Economist "Whisper it softly,…

This comes via der Standard, an Austrian daily.  My translation below: The international financial crisis has hit eastern Europe harder than previously expected, according to a press report. At least ten states are negotiating with…

This is my translation of an article from Dagens Nyheter, a Swedish daily. Swedish banks are planning to write down Latvian personal loans by 10 percent. However, the proposal includes only a small part of the Latvia’s mountain of debt.…

This comes via the Sydney Morning Herald: A year ago, after Stern Hu had survived 20-odd rounds of negotiations and won Rio Tinto and Australia an extraordinary 87 per cent price increase for its iron ore contracts, I asked him if he…

Marshall Auerback sent me this joke about Mark Sanford. Mark Sanford’s staff thought he was hiking in the mountains. In fairness to his aides, "I'm getting some Argentinian tail." sounds a lot like "I'm hiking the…

R.W. Baird downgraded Starwood Hotels (HOT) from Neutral to Underperform, saying it was downgrading estimates on hotels across the board. This comes via Barrons: Starwood's former strengths are now weaknesses. During the boom Starwood's…