2018 has been a relentless -25% bear market for the world's largest investment banks.
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$60 Trillion Of World Debt In One Visualization
Today’s visualization breaks down $59.7 trillion of world debt by country, as well as highlighting each country’s debt-to-GDP ratio using colour. The data comes from the IMF and only covers external government debt.
It excludes the debt of country’s citizens and businesses, as well as unfunded liabilities which are not yet technically incurred yet. All figures are based on USD.
Is the U.K. the Next Greece?
A day after the EU has come to terms on a bailout to save Greece, this Bloomberg TV analysis is pretty interesting. First, they point out that the rates Greece got were still pretty punitive, despite the fact that they were below market rates. But even more interesting is the notion that the U.K., not Portugal, Spain, or Ireland, might be the next economy to be forced to the brink because they’re not part of the Euro Zone and don’t have the partners to bail them out.
BP downgraded to AA from AA+ by Fitch
The first of many to come? The outlook would suggest so, after Fitch cut BP’s credit rating in response to its Deepwater spill dilemmas on Thursday — watch negative.
As Fitch’s release suggests, it’s a further headache for BP:
Fitch Ratings-London-03 June 2010: Fitch Ratings has today downgraded BP plc’s (BP) Long-term Issuer Default Rating (IDR) and senior unsecured rating to ‘AA’ from ‘AA+’, respectively, and placed the ratings on Rating Watch Negative (RWN). At the same time, Fitch has affirmed BP’s Short-term IDR at ‘F1+’. The ratings of BP Capital Markets plc’s senior unsecured issues, which are fully and unconditionally guaranteed by BP, have been downgraded to ‘AA’ from ‘AA+’ and placed on RWN. BP Capital Markets is BP’s wholly-owned indirect subsidiary.
The downgrade of BP’s ratings reflects Fitch’s opinion that risks to both BP’s business and financial profile continue to increase following the Deepwater Horizon accident in the US Gulf of Mexico. The company has so far repeatedly failed to stop the resultant oil leak and has instead reverted to containment methods that are yet to be fully implemented and are subject to potential weather related disruption. Fitch notes that the drilling of relief wells also poses risks and additional time may be required for them to be fully effective. An additional factor supporting the downgrade is the 1 June 2010 announcement by US Attorney General, Eric Holder, that both a criminal and civil investigation has opened with respect to the oil spill that could have potential negative implications for BP’s financial profile. (more…)
Prospectus for the United States – Would You Invest?
On the other hand, many of us are well-versed at going over a prospectus and Jim Grant of the Interest Rate Observer has put one together for the United States of America as it seeks to raise $16Bn for 30-year Treasury Notes. According to the prospectus: “The Bonds will mature on April 15, 2040. Interest on the bonds is payable semiannually on April 15 and October 15, beginning October 15, 2010. Before giving effect to the offering of the Bonds and the securities to be issued concurrently,
the United States had approximately $12,500,000,000,000 of indebtedness subject to the statutory debt limitation.”
CLICK HERE …………To Read complete article
3 Ways U.K. Could Reverse Brexit
Your Own Trading Coach!
We can’t control how markets move, so we can’t control whether any single trade we make will be profitable or not. But we can control how we make trades: how we enter, how we size positions, how we exit, and how we contain losses.
Having rules about all of those helps us set specific goals about the process of trading, rather than about the outcome.
The goal of your learning is to trade well, just as the goal of a pitcher is to make a good pitch. If you do that often enough, you’ll win your share of outings.
Lehman To Sue One Or More Big Banks Over Derivatives "Fraudulent Transfer"
Lehman Holdings will be filing a lawsuit against one or more major banks in regards to the valuation of derivatives. This will occur today or Monday. It is the first such lawsuit (valuation dispute) of its kind by Lehman. Some of the counterparts to Lehman’s existing trades weren’t willing to play nice, so the “estate” felt it necessary to rack up another few thousand billable hours and take this battle to court.
Which banks you may ask? The Valukas report indicated the beneficiaries of the alleged fraudulent transfer were as follows: Goldman Sachs, Barclays, Morgan Stanley, JPMorgan, Citadel L.P. and DRW Trading. Surely, another lawsuit for shady business practices against Goldman is all the firm needs right now.
IMF: Dollar Carry-Trade Creating Bubbles Around The World
Read a PDF of the IMF’s recent report here.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) highlighted the fact that low interest rates in the U.S., plus an apparent “one-way” bet against the dollar has created a global dollar carry-trade that is driving capital flows into emerging markets.
If not handled properly, this will lead to emerging market asset bubbles, which arguably have already begun to inflate.
We’ve highlighted before how places like Hong Kong are seeing property prices go through the roof due to low U.S. interest rates. (more…)