OMG, Japan is actually growing

Yesterday…
US jobless claims came in higher than expected and housing data disappointed as well, raining on the American recovery 2013 parade and adding to the uncertainty over the future of the Fed‘s asset purchasing program. read New York Times
At the same time, those with disposable income seem to be working on a new housing bubble of sorts. read Bloomberg

Japan reported its economy grew in the first quarter of the year, leading to a 3.5% annualized growth leap and supporting Shinzo Abe’s approach since his inauguration in September. Most of the growth is attributed to private consumption. read Bloomberg

Meanwhile, Japanese companies prefer to look for opportunities elsewhere, for example the US, where a handful of corporates bought into the US shale gas market for several billion dollar. read Financial Times

Following the Bloomberg user data debacle, Citigroup has banned its fixed income traders from participating in Bloomberg chat groups to shield the banks from any security breaches. read Financial Times

This morning…
Lloyds Banking Group might just be short of fully returning into private sector hands, as the bank’s shares rose higher than the government’s cut-off point for a sale of 61.2 pence per share. Over the past weeks, David Cameron had reiterated that bailed out and partly nationalized institution shouldn’t stay government owned for longer than needed. read Reuters

Word got out that Qatar spent up to $3bn on supporting the Syrian opposition since 2011, the same year in which Libya’s rebels also received support, fueling rivalry over political influence between Arab countries. read Financial Times

Other than that, there is not much going on, time to get on the below.

Weekend reading…

– Bangladesh, globalization and the price of your t-shirts, read New York Times
– from pork bellies to ruling the world – a brief history of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, read Economist
– gold bulls vs bears, read Alphaville
– Super Abe and the fight for a prosperous Japan, read Economist leader
– on the uselessness of asset management, read Harvard Business Review

Have a good one.

Filed under: news brief, Asia, asset management, bailout, Bangladesh, Bloomberg, Citigroup, CME, commodities, data, Europe, globalization, gold, housing market, Japan, Lloyds, Middle East, Qatar, quantitative easing, real estate, shale gas, Syria, US, weekend reading

Eurozone recession here to stay, UK gets ready for exit

Yesterday…
David Cameron and his comrades of the Conservative Party published a policy draft for a referendum for a possible EU-exit of the UK. The draft says the referendum has to be completed by December 2017, given the Tories win the 2015 elections. I think the campaigning just began. read BBC

While the global “recovery” continues to force deficits to skyrocket and imports to slump, India has managed to become the outlier in the trend on Monday afternoon. Taking advantage of the low gold price, imports rose 138% since April 2012 to $7.5bn, or 18% of all imports, while the trade deficit hit 17.8bn. read Zerohedge

And of course the drama over Bloomberg‘s use of user data continued… read FT Alphaville

This morning…
there was a flood of data, with the German economy growing 0.1% from 4Q12 to the first quarter of 2013, undercutting the depressing estimate of 0.3% growth. The French economy contracted by 0.2% over the same period of time. read Bloomberg
Franco-German relations haven’t been great since Hollande got into office, but this morning’s result may just worsen the atmosphere of any policy discussion. The eurozone as such, contracted 0.2% in 1Q13. The recession continues…

Simultaneously, Mervyn “it’s-almost-his-last-day” King of the Bank of England raised the outlook for the UK economy [with lower inflation] and raised his eyebrows at eurozone performance, as well as the continental Financial Transaction Tax. read Guardian

Meanwhile, the US is preparing to become the model student again. The Congressional Budget Office is forecasting the deficit to fall as far as $378bn by 2015, much faster than anticipated. The 2013 forecast was cut by $203bn to an overall $642bn. read Reuters
And that is not all: Formerly the largest corporate debt market in the world, providing ample opportunity for the Michael Milken followers of the world to make money, China is going to take that spot within the next two years, according to S&P. Soon America will be debt and deficit free and flow with milk and vodka (we’re all grown-ups here). read Financial Times

In the kerfuffle over whether Jamie Dimon is allowed to stay in in his double-role as chairman and CEO of JPMorgan seems to be blowing over (much like Lloyd Blankfein expected), as fewer shareholders than expected are looking to back the leadership reform. Another bullet dodged for the industry. read Financial Times

And in case you’ve been in a good mood this morning, have a look at this: 10 Scenes from the ongoing global economic collapse (Zerohedge)

So long.

Filed under: news brief, Bank of England, Bloomberg, China, data, David Cameron, debt, debt capital markets, deficit, EU, eurozone, France, GDP, Germany, gold, growth, imports, India, Jamie Dimon, JP Morgan, Lloyd Blankfein, referendum, trade, UK, US

Cyprus to sell €400m in gold; bailout to total €23bn

Yesterday…
Barack Obama submitted a budget proposal to Congress, totalling $3.77tn and including policies to curb social security and medicare expenses. The proposal foresees a $744bn deficit for 2014. read article

While the minutes from the latest Federal Open Market Committee meeting were expected today, they were accidentally sent out early to lobbyists, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs. Oops. The notes supported the thesis that the Fed’s QE program could end by year-end 2014, given improvements in the job market. read article

This morning…
Over in Cyprus, €400m worth of gold are up for sale, as the country has to up its contributions to the bailout program that so far consists of €9bn from European institutions and €1bn from the IMF. Another €10.9bn will free up in the winding down of Laiki Bank. And yes, all that money, €23bn, will be needed to just keep the country afloat until the beginning of 2016. read article

China has seen a massive influx of foreign capital. In Q1 of this year, the country’s forex reserves exploded to $3.44tn from only $130bn in the previous quarter. New financing grew by 58% from the same period last year. read article

Next door in Japan, central bank governor Kuroda said the BoJ had done all it could at this point, and the asset purchasing program wouldn’t be expanded any further any time soon. read article

So long.

Filed under: news brief, bailout, Bank of Japan, Barack Obama, budget, China, Citigroup, Cyprus, deficit, FDI, Federal Reserve, Forex, gold, Goldman Sachs, Japan, Laiki Bank, quantitative easing, US

Eurozone crisis: Just grow out of it, stupid!

After yesterday’s news of the shrinking German economy, Spanish PM Mariano Rajoy called on all those country’s who aren’t Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Cyrpus, really also Italy and maybe not even France, to implement growth stimulating policies as long as they can, because Spain sure can’t. This is the same Spain that still hasn’t called the ECB for help. Should someone break the news that Europe might not just grow out of this crisis? Maybe. But it’s siesta now. Let’s wait. read article

In the meantime, the German central bank is working on the logistics of getting 700 pounds of gold back into German vaults. At this point most of it is stored at the New York Fed, with the rest of it locked up in Paris, a precaution that is still in place from the cold war. read article

The Netherlands‘ fourth largest bank SNS Reaal announced that it would need a restructuring due to its toxic property loans in autumn 2012. Now, the bailout will have to be carried out by the government. According to a decision by the European Commission, Dutch banks ING and ABN Amro will not be allowed to be part of the restructuring, because they received bailouts during the financial crisis. One scenario would be the creation of a bad bank for said loans, with all other big Dutch banks as shareholders. Hello over there at the Basel committee! Does this sound systemically risk-free to you? Altogether, it is estimated that SNS Reaal will need about €1.2-1.8bn to keep its doors open. In 2008, the bank received €750m from the government. read article

Otherwise, there are a number for “Facebook searching for revenue” headlines out there, because the website just launched its own search function, which despite it’s lose limits on Facebook itself, is stepping onto Google’s turf. Has that ever been a good idea? read article

And speaking of corporate catfights. It seems obvious that EADS has won the “massive plane”-round against Boeing. The Dreamliner (787), competitor aircraft to the A380, doesn’t seem to fly so well. This morning All Nippon Airlines and Japan Air grounded their 787 fleets for review, after yet another Dreamliner had to perform an emergency landing due to technical difficulties. read article

A whole truckload of banks announce fourth quarter earnings today, including JP Morgan, which has just announced to cut CEO Jamie Dimon’s salary in response to his responsibility in the London Whale case.

So long.

Filed under: news brief, ABN Amro, aviation, bailout, Boeing, Bundesbank, companies, EADS, earnings, Europe, eurozone, Facebook, Germany, gold, Google, growth, Japan, JP Morgan, London, Mariano Rajoy, SNS Reaal, Spain, The Netherlands, Wall Street

Fixing Japan – a bucket list

Japan is all over the news today, trying to weaken its currency (or not), stimulate growth and create jobs. It’s ambitious, to say the least. But it’s also good news for Europe. After all, new PM Shinzo Abe is planning to weaken the Japanese yen by buying euro-denominated bonds from the ESM: to save Europe, the world and its currency. Unfortunately  the world moves faster than politics and while business executives had begged for a weaker currency, they now fret that the yen could fall too far. Abe also set a 2% inflation target alongside stability and prosperity for everyone, causing Japan’s pension funds, which hold the second largest pool of retirement assets in the world after the United States, to increase their gold holdings from JPY45bn to JPY100bn. And then there is this hint of an idea to eliminate the interest-rate floor for deposits at the Bank of Japan, something the ECB has done as well to try and incentivize lending. The final policy decisions will be announced at the Bank of Japan’s meeting on 21-22 January.

In the background, Eurozone unemployment has once again broken all records, while German and Finnish exports declined. Meanwhile, Spain announced that it would have to issue €215-230bn gross debt throughout the year, which is 7.5% more than accounted for in the November budget.

Norway’s Foreign Minister Mats Persson has called on the UK to reconsider its currently rather hostile relationship with the EU to save the City of London and influence European legislation. During a trip to Ireland, Persson pointed out that Norway, while swimming in oil money, only had very marginal influence in its status as a member of the EEA (European Economic Area). read article

Follwing yesterday’s mortgage crisis-related settlement charges, Bank of America has agreed to pay $11.6bn to state-backed Fannie Mae, the Federal National Mortgage Association, which was bailed out during the crisis. The settlement regards mortgage putbacks, those loans Fannie Mae wants BoA to buy back due to their questionable nature. read article

After the American SEC took the first step in fighting services providers in December, when it opened the investigation into potentially fraudulent behavior of the big auditing companies in China, Ernst&Young is now subject of an Washington-based inquiry. Allegation say E&Y lobbied on behalf of its clients, compromising its independence in auditing said corporates. In 2004, E&Y was suspended from entertaining new client businesses with publicly traded companies for six months in response to violating independence rules. read article

So long.

Filed under: news brief, Bank of America, Bank of Japan, debt, Ernst & Young, ESM, exports, Fannie Mae, Finland, FX, Germany, gold, inflation, interest rate, Japan, London, mortgages, pensions, regulation, SEC, Spain, unemployment

Gold standard, question mark?

The Republican Party is in the process of setting up a “gold commission” to monitor the Fed’s monetary policy decisions and revive the link between the dollar and gold. Excuse me, says you. Indeed, says I. It looks a lot like areturn to the gold standard. Thanks, Ron Paul. And it’s getting better:

The proposal is reminiscent of the Gold Commission created by former president Ronal Reagan in 1981, 10 years after Richard Nixon broke the link between gold and the dollar during the 1971 oil crisis.

And of course nobody has thought about this:

Inflation has remained under control in recent years, despite claims that expansion of the Fed’s balance sheet would lead to runaway price rises, while gold has been highly volatile. The price of the metal is up by more than 500 per cent in dollar terms over the past decade. 

Somebody add an economic history book ( to that order of biology books that is being sent to Florida. read article

Glenn Maud, formerly of the real estate investment firm Propinvest, which entered into administration in November 2011, now has his expenses watched by the Royal Court of Guernsey. Indeed, the poor man who owns windows and door frames of Canary Wharf’s Citi Tower and Santander’s Madrid headquarters, is now required to keep his living expenses under £500 a week. As a journalist, I sympathize. Plus, hookers are expensive. There’s nothing worse then running out of £100 notes on a fucking Tuesday morning.

Propinvest’s Gemini portfolio, which holds 35 commercial real estate assets, is currently worth £437.5m with almost £1bn of loans attached to them. read article

The Greek Prime Minister Antonis Samaras is on the road in Western Europe: he is meeting Merkel today, Hollande tomorrow, and the day after that the queen’s child comes in. Both Merkel and Hollande, who previously had next to nothing in common, agree that Greece has to stay committed to the bailout terms and conditions. That’s really not too crazy a thing to ask. read article

Or as ZeroHedge put it:

Merkel Says Greek Acts Must Follow Promises. Is she insane? This. Is. EUROPE!

Weekend reading:

– just a chart: the price of a polar bear

– following the unforgettable fight of the century: Keynes vs Hayek, Alphaville brings us Hayek vs Rand, read article

– Elisabeth Murdoch’s criticism of News Corp, preparations for an awkward Thanksgiving, read article

– “Don’t be fooled by short-selling bans” by MC Gillian Tett, read article

Have a good one and don’t forget that Monday is a bank holiday.

Filed under: news brief, Angela Merkel, Antonis Samaras, bailout, debt, Federal Reserve, France, Francois Hollande, Germany, gold, gold standard, Greece, Guernsey, Hayek, Keynes, legal, monetary policy, Newscorp, real estate, Repubilcans, US, weekend reading