Today, we have reserved a guest post for Jan De Blonde who is very actively engaged in sustainable farmland investment abroad. Jan is ...
My friend the equity racehorse sent me me the following interesting link which appeared on Dutch television and which basically ...
Vorige zondag (6 mei 2012) verscheen het volgend interview in De Zondag:
Elk jaar omtrent deze tijd publiceert BP zijn Statistical Review of World Energy. Bijna 50 pagina’s grotendeels gevuld met tabellen ...
Door een abrupt beëindigde skivakantie (nauwelijks 50 meter op de latten gestaan) bracht ik de rest van de week haast immobiel en al ...
Well, it's not exactly Moody's but more precisely Fitch, sending out messages which are "surprising" to say the least. Remember ...
Davos, setting of the Thomas Mann novel "Der Zauberberg" and sheltering famous people throughout history such as ...
Following our adventures in today's every changing moods in the world of finance, it's not a bad thing to assess volatility as a ...
You may remember I wrote a piece on Asia Pacific Breweries (APB) , Heineken and Fraser & Neave (F&N) when I was in Singapore earlier ...
My dear friend Sideshow Bob sent me a short note which I think deserves some attention. It opens up the discussion on one of the most ...
Geen kat die deze stelling zal betwisten, maar de impact ervan op de Chinese economie wordt vermoedelijk zwaar onderschat. We hebben ...
De kogel is door de kerk, iedereen van ons kan straks aandeelhouder van Facebook worden. Intekenen op een IPO is echter niet altijd ...
Apple kwam de afgelopen week met de langverwachte medeling over hun spaarpot van 100 miljard $. Een mogelijke overname is nog niet in ...
On March 14th, the Media Innovation Center was launched (under the wings of the IBBT) and baptized 'Mix'. Its goal is to support and ...
Yesterday Fitch released a report with some arithmetics and outlook on the ageing population and how the developed west so far has ...
According to the World Economic Forum, Canadian banks have been ranked as the soundest and most safe banks world-wide, this for 5 ...
Gemini, the immortal twins Castor and Pollux, in this case Dublin and Cork. We picked up an interesting story from out of Bloomberg ...
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Well, it's not exactly Moody's but more precisely Fitch, sending out messages which are "surprising" to say the least. Remember earlier this week, Fitch came out with pension time bomb study on which we blogged. And in the case of Belgium, it's a long way to Tipporary with a considerable chance of downgrade towards BBB in case of ...
Davos, setting of the Thomas Mann novel "Der Zauberberg" and sheltering famous people throughout history such as Arthur Conan Doyle, Robert L Stevenson and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. Today, Davos is mainly famous for being an exclusive ski resort and the annual host of the World Economic Forum. A brief appetizer :
Following our adventures in today's every changing moods in the world of finance, it's not a bad thing to assess volatility as a measure of risk. And the last couple of months, in the light of the uncertainty surrounding the global business cycle and sovereign debt crisis, it's always interesting to spot the hot spots, if there are ...
Unbelievable but now the FED has managed to arrive at the point where they exactly wanted to be, it seems that a growing part of voting members within the FOMC does no longer agree: “Prices of assets such as bonds, agricultural land, and high-yield and leveraged loans are at historically high levels,” George said in a speech ...
Let's put in a USD 550 bio extra of asset purchases, or may be on second thought, let's double that amount. After 9 consecutive rounds of QE worth JPY 100 trillion - roughly EUR 1,000 bio and some small change - the freshly elected Japanese government headed by Shinzo Abe is looking for something more, let's say, "challenging". ...
I have been feeling a lttle bit under the weather but luckily, we can post some stuff with a little help from our friends. Sideshow Bob volunteered and came up with the following short consideration about the impact of Basel III going softer on banks and capital cushion requirements. It also touches the vital aspect of financial ...
We have been announcing it, trying to avoid it but there was simply no escaping from it. My dear friend colleague Nikolaas Bellens has crossed the Rubicon and provided me with the following deeper insights originating from his darker side. And to some extend, he is turning back the clock, violating physics and denying historical ...
Well not exactly hooray as far as the IMF is concerned : Apparently the IMF is not happy with Latvia having refunded their entire 2008 bail-out loan already. The IMF at one point even gave the advice of "piano, piano" or "we don't need so much money from you right now". The Latvians nevertheless pushed forward and now have of ...
"Life without music would be a mistake" - Friedrich Nietzsche. So before turning over to the 2012 review and 2013 outlook, let's just have a quick playful stop first by way of introduction : most likely the best ouverture of all ouvertures ever made, 18th century purest form of Rock & Roll avant la lettre :
When the Roman Catholic Church meets Ferrari meets the "Left", what do you get ? Because that's in a nutshell what is currently happening in Italy, "progressive" forces seeking change and joining forces. At first sight, they truly make an odd couple trio. Mind you, the majority of Maranello based Ferrari employees ...
A couple of days ago, blogger Bruce Krasting (fx) had a nice story on the Japanese Yen. "The full name for what is familiarly known as JA is Japan Short Anonymous (JSA). The group is patterned off of AA or Alcoholics Anonymous (many JA members are also in AA). The only qualifications for joining JA are the loss of a great ...
Despite several headwinds facing each and every developed nation, stock markets have made a fairly good run this year. Some sectors even shined, especially in the US. And it comes from an unexpected angle when looking at this through the glass of a European observer: Financials. The S&P 500 financial sector total ...
Last Friday, I went to a Central Europe event organized by KBC. Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary presented themselves in terms of business cycle & public finance outlook. The session was highly interesting because some unusual features came up which made me look a little bit further. But first the main lessons to be ...
QE3 and the morning after, what's the score ? Well, considering it was pretty well wired, market reactions so far are not that exuberant in terms of volatility. Ben's message was simple : Nevermind the greenshoots appearing, we are going "all in", no matter. Until unemployment does not dive under the FED's 6,5% target, we will be ...
Former FED governor Paul Volcker was appointed in 2009 by the Obama administration to chair the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board. Volcker has ever since been focusing on systemic risk in the financial sector, more specifically the trading positions commercial banks take on. It's basically an extension or implementation ...
Complacency is usually a recipe for disaster and financial markets are no exception. Most common bubbles we have experienced throughout history mainly focus on overpricing risk and risk assets, usually stocks or high yield bonds. But when it comes to bonds these days, we have been going into bubble territory deeper and deeper by ...
...and it's all about plan B, AKA "The Great Escape". There has been some speculation going on lately on how our monetary policy makers intend to normalize the unusual situation where we are in right now. Some - and probably helicopter Ben included - argue that it can become even more unusual in view of the fact that things are not ...
Just when you thought the system has learned its lesson and we are on track for may be a fresh and more honest start, you come across the following stories. Well, it's not all bad but first chapter I or "Dreamland Revisited" : Dubai The risk of a property bubble resurfacing are clearly visible, either from out of ...
"Never underestimate the power of denial" - Ricky Fitts, American Beauty . It has been a while we reported on the European sovereign debt crisis so we thought it being appropriate to give a quick update. Greece finally has secured a new deal with the Troika but no new haircuts are involved. So no new debt relief. We ...
We picked an interesting story on Bloomberg earlier this week but we like to dig in a bit further. The point the article tries to make is to announce the end of structured finance. The prelude to this began way back in 2008 when Lehman failed and suddenly every one woke up from the dream that may be capital guarantees are not so ...
