Bernard Hickey is away again today but will be back on Monday, so the team here at interest.co.nz have put together this alternative Top 10. It's not Bernard's, but we hope you find it worthwhile anyway.
1. A profitable business
The financial crisis was a money-maker for the US Federal Reserve. Research published by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York found the central bank’s various emergency lending and liquidity efforts helped generate US$13 billion in profit between August 2007 and December 2009, when the tools were most used. The programs generated US$20 billion in gross income against US$7 billion in costs.
2. Dilbert
3. Why isn't Wall Street in jail?
Matt Taibbi gets stuck in again, in this Rolling Stone piece. Financial crooks brought down the world's economy - but the Feds are doing more to protect them than to prosecute them, he observes. And he likes his graphic quotes ... "You put Lloyd Blankfein in pound-me-in-the-ass prison for one six-month term, and all this bullshit would stop, all over Wall Street," says a former congressional aide. "That's all it would take. Just once."
4. A chronic disease
The number of US households behind on mortgage payments fell during the fourth quarter to the lowest level in two years, buoyed by the broader economic recovery. But the number of loans in foreclosure remained at its highest level since the mortgage crisis began, in part because banks slowed their foreclosure processes late last year to fix document-handling problems that surfaced in September.
5. The data ...
| first thing | --- 52 week --- | |||||||
| Today | yesterday | high | low | |||||
| -------- | -------- | --------- | --------- | |||||
| FX rates | NZ$1=US$ | 0.7602 | 0.7523 | 0.7964 | 0.6584 | |||
| NZ$1=AU$ | 0.7508 | 0.7544 | 0.8212 | 0.7408 | ||||
| Gold | in US$/oz | 1,383 | 1,375 | 1,421 | 1,082 | |||
| in NZ$ | 1,819 | 1,828 | 1,877 | 1,546 | ||||
| Copper | in US$/t | 9,925 | 10,107 | 10,147 | 6,091 | |||
| in NZ$ | 13,056 | 13,435 | 13,493 | 8,951 | ||||
| Crude oil | in US$/bl | 86.23 | 84.95 | 91.91 | 69.89 | |||
| in NZ$ | 113.43 | 112.92 | 121.36 | 101.30 | ||||
| US Treasuries | 30 yr bond | 4.67% | 4.66% | 4.78% | 3.61% | |||
| Dow | DJIA 30 | 12,300 | 12,289 | 12,300 | 9,688 | |||
6. The impact of climate change on strategic asset allocation
With 1.6 million of us now in KiwiSaver, we are going to be taking a whole lot more interest in fund performance in the future. But how will your fund perform in an era of significant climate change? Does that phenomena have investment choice implications? Mercer has done a major investigation, and reports how to adapt.
7. XXL Toys for the Super Rich
The seriously rich are living it up in decadent style on luxury yachts. And they particularly value German craftsmanship. Shipyards like Lürssen and Blohm & Voss are backed up by dozens of smaller companies that cater to the billionaires' every whim - even on-board showers that squirt champagne.
8. Up and down
Hot on the heels of Kiwibank's mortgage rate cut, HSBC has now trimmed its six month fixed rate to 5.49% down 0.25%. And they added a bonus - the rate will be 4.99% if you take their home and contents insurance policy. New loan generation is at very low levels, and banks are going to need to be creative to stem the decline in their mortgage books.
RaboDirect has cut its 5 year term deposit rate to 6.45% from 6.70% this morning.
9. Better than expected
The Crown accounts for the six months to December 2010 have come in slightly better than forecast. Expenses are down, tax receipts are up. That is not quite what I would have expected if I was forecasting a double-dip and that Q4 Q2 GDP will be negative.
10. Climbing over the wall
There is nothing quite like 'banning' something to make it exotic and attractive - especially to the young. China's "great firewall" strategy is having the unintended consequence of making the world outside seem very attractive - and spawning subversive innovation, something that ironically may benefit China in the long run, as it feeds an "innovation arms-race". The same tensions are being played out in the Mid-East and Africa right now as well.
No chart with that title exists.
19 Comments
Spell check broken AGAIN?
Not saying I'm a villain, but there is definitely an "I" in it!
gulp! bring back Bernard, I say
Yes indeed , bring back old Chicken-Little Hickey A.S.A.P. ! ..... Did you realise that only one of your Top 10 stories today was very negative , David ? ......... This will not do in the home of hickeysterical gloomsterisationalysing , interest.co.nz ..............
............. Lift your game , Chaston ........ Or more precisely , lower it ! ...Cease and desist from being positive and optimistic .
All is good in Kiwiland tonight as the Highlanders have just dealt to the Hurricanes. That's another upbeat story to add to the day Gummy
David , I like your concise format of the Top 10 , if the header is of interest , simply click and read it .....
NZ employers away with the fairies: http://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/news/article.cfm?c_id=3&objectid=107…
"Meanwhile employers were unconvinced that large numbers of staff would be seeking greener pastures as the economy improved, despite a recent period of salary stagnation and belt-tightening.
Most employers said they were not expecting significant turnover rates, with 48 per cent expecting the level to be insignificant, 43 per cent predicting moderate turnover and only 6 per cent anticipating it will be significant."
LOL!
Little wonder NZ business never develops or progresses.
A new low for junk bond yields - http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/markets/junk-bond-yields-fall-…
And China rejects Sarkozy's currency plan - http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/news/china-backs-away-from-sar…
Just a great paragraph from,
http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/wall-streets-naked-swindle-20…
"On Tuesday, March 11th, 2008, somebody — nobody knows who —made one of the craziest bets Wall Street has ever seen. The mystery figure spent $1.7 million on a series of options, gambling that shares in the venerable investment bank Bear Stearns would lose more than half their value in nine days or less. It was madness — "like buying 1.7 million lottery tickets," according to one financial analyst.
But what's even crazier is that the bet paid.
At the close of business that afternoon, Bear Stearns was trading at $62.97. At that point, whoever made the gamble owned the right to sell huge bundles of Bear stock, at $30 and $25, on or before March 20th. In order for the bet to pay, Bear would have to fall harder and faster than any Wall Street brokerage in history.
The very next day, March 12th, Bear went into free fall. By the end of the week, the firm had lost virtually all of its cash and was clinging to promises of state aid; by the weekend, it was being knocked to its knees by the Fed and the Treasury, and forced at the barrel of a shotgun to sell itself to JPMorgan Chase (which had been given $29 billion in public money to marry its hunchbacked new bride) at the humiliating price of … $2 a share. Whoever bought those options on March 11th woke up on the morning of March 17th having made 159 times his money, or roughly $270 million. This trader was either the luckiest guy in the world, the smartest son of a bitch ever or…"
Why work?.....when the system is this corrupt....it might as well fall.
regards
Maybe. The option buyer may just have been long to the gills physical Bear stock @ $62.97 and hence suffered all the fall between there and $30 and $25. That's pure loss on valuation for them, plus the option premium. In which case, they may have taken an absolute hiding, themselves. Some of the Big Firms don't even know what their computers have done for them, till it's done! The 'machines' calculate the risk at an given nano-second, and do the hedging for them.
Govt Cash Deficit ....
Is the $ 13 + B for the 6 months or annual ?
Sorry - now read the accounts - Yip for 6 months.
Unbelievable - Hence my dumb question.
We could be looking at $ 20 B full year !
The stuff of nightmares: Zerohedge plots the demise of the US economy in 10 graphs:
http://www.zerohedge.com/article/what-wrong-us-economy-here-are-10-econ…
AH - good link, food for though, but.....
Is the unemployment scaled for population increase?
and
The dollar was indeeed cut loose from the gold standard (by Nixon) but those of us who think in terms of Hubbert, and the 'export land model', note that in 1970, the USA became dependent on imported oil. The embargo hadn't worked in the six-day-war era, because the Yanks were self-sufficient - the later one did (the OIL Shock) because they were in depletion mode - ie vulnerable. Kissinger pinned oil to the dollar for good reason. They knew where it was going.
Give the writer their due, they do acknowledge the need for 'cheap energy', or no growth. Makes them way ahead of the myriad posters on the Olly thread.
:)
NZ govt's gross debt rose to 32.5 per cent of GDP...and there's plenty more where that came from, right Bill?
Too little revenue and too much splurge.....let's hope this gives Bill an urge!
On the horizon we have an inflation storm approaching and no way will milk producers be happy that they are now expected to subsidise the local milk market. Who's next....meat producers?....or will it be local council rate rises...no silly me what a thought!....perhaps it will be the power companies crimping the profits...fat chance....let's see if the ice cream and butter and other dairy based stuff is frozen in price.....hahahahaha
I see Sir Humphrey ordered a fleet of new beemers for the state shofurs....aint it nice of him....a whole garage stuffed with beemers...must be like that sitcom "On the busses".....uniforms and all...spit and polish....they needed 34 new ones because at any one time 30 of them are in for repairs!
Ruined the start to a nice Saturday that did...caught the aussie news showing Swann arriving at the G20 in Paris...and there she was....the gargoyle Clark centre frame....almost spewed up me cornies......what's it doing at the G20?
The American Academy of Matrimonial Lawyers has announced that business has improved for its members in 2010 . Divorces handled were 37 % down in 2008 , and even worse , 57 % down in 2009 . .......
..... The recession is over ! .... More people feel comfortable to split up from their partner , and to cash-out the jointly held assets at a reasonable price . ...
.... Isn't that wonderful news , the Yankee divorce rate is heading back up , oh joy ....... I can feel the sheer unbridled ecstasy of the AAML .............
......... yay ... !
Parker trips off to Nepal for 6 days...to give a 15 minute speech!....he felt he just had to go...bet many Cantabs wish he would go for good.
Meanwhile the truth is oozing from the chch ground that any rebuild will not start before spring...don't be surprised if that's spring 2012!
Funny that the CCC building proved to be a pile of shite, a real quake failure, who was behind that?
And my money is on the great buried dam experiment becoming the farce of the new century....!
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