- When junk was gold an interesting long article that brings more details on one of the many aspects of the generalized madness we have been through over the past few years. One has to reckon that the rating agencies were having a lot of fun on their side.
- An interesting letter from ING, the Dutch bank, which is sending a letter to my address (even if I already told that the guy that had an account with them does not live here anymore). They are doing very well, all the saving with them are safe and they are in a position of strength (I will try to scan an upload the letter tomorrow morning)
- ING takes €10bn injection from Dutch state: the previous item is now confirmed.
General
Sunday, October 19 2008
Week end reading
By JF on Sunday, October 19 2008, 23:32
Sunday, October 12 2008
UK city councils lost money in the collapse of Icelandic banks
By JF on Sunday, October 12 2008, 15:40
The facts
Numerous city councils in the UK were investing their money (the proceeds from the taxes paid by people) with some the Icelandic banks who went bust last week. Those councils are now asking for the government to "guarantee" their deposits. .
So far, the Chancellor refused to give them financial guarantee and judged that these councils should have get sounder financial advice. Margaret Eaton, chairman of the Local Government Association, said that councils are spreading their assets to ensure the maximum return for their investments.
A few comments
I think this is a very odd situation.
On one hand, we have been recently hearing politicians from each side calling increasingly for the persons "responsible" to be punished. I think those kind of comments are very stupid especially when this crisis is the result of several years of common hysteria. Politicians will point out a few culprit whereas they will never take heir responsibility for not enforcing the insufficient regulation they had designed in the past. They purposefully closed the eyes on a situation that was favorable to them: voters are usually more easy to handle when they are enjoying a strong growth period (even if it is a growing bubble).
On the other hand I am still scrutinizing the newspaper to read about the resignation of the people that where managing the money in these councils. If we are about to do a which hunt let's start with the easy culprits 
They were not innocent victims.. If you are managing someone else money you are required to be a fully qualified investors. You have to know there is no free lunch and if you are getting a higher return their is a higher risk. Do they even know about risk adjusted returns?
Newspaper have been discussing about a potential collapse of this bank for more than a year now. You can gamble with your own money (and its even easier when there is a compensation scheme to help you) but things are much different when you are paying with tax payers money..
ps as I am reading this article I just discovered that Universities and hospitals money managers were also investing in these banks ...
Monday, October 6 2008
Week end newspaper (FT) clippings
By JF on Monday, October 6 2008, 00:25
Very busy week end for me and I ended up reading only the Financial Times. Four articles were particularly noteworthy:
- The Bear: Merryn Somerset Webb thinks that the market are still overpricing. Doom and Gloom are on the menu
- The Bull: Fidelity's Anthony Bolton is putting his own money on the market. Good sign?
- Fat tails and counterparty risks: explanations on usually underestimated risks. A must read for ETF and structured products investors
- Mortgage Fraud: Some details on the last few years miraculous growth. Wall Street and the CIty are obviously responsible for the collapse but the previous unprecedented growth period (could also be qualified generalized insane period) was a courtesy of our respective government supervision.
Wednesday, October 1 2008
It was a year ago ..
By JF on Wednesday, October 1 2008, 23:47
... and Chuck Norris has not fixed the credit crisis yet
Anyway that is still funny
Tuesday, September 23 2008
Isn't it ironic ?
By JF on Tuesday, September 23 2008, 07:23
The SEC has just added GLG partners, a listed hedge fund manager, to the list of the securities that cannot be shorted ....
GLG lost its star manager at the beginning of the year and markets have been wondering since whether the hedge fund is going to suffer net outflows the manager set up his new competing fund.
That all. Will come back on this later but right now I am a bit short ... on time
Sunday, September 7 2008
This week end newspaper clippings
By JF on Sunday, September 7 2008, 21:33
- Saving from the ground up: The Sunday Times finance makeover column is giving some advise to a couple in their late twenties that does not have any saving. A good example if you don't know where to start.
- Use momentum to cross choppy waters: David Stevenson, the Financial Times' adventurous investor, investigates some of the no-hassle investment vehicle if you want to try momentum investing, an investment strategy that buy the stars (the stocks whose price is rising most) and sells the dogs (the stocks whose price is falling most) and rebalancing regularly). I personally share David's view that an ETF replicating the returns of SocGen's index would definitely a potential buy for me.
- Hark, the return of the bull market : David Schwartz, FT Money's trader sees signs of a bull market on the horizon.
Good readings
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