October 22, 2014 Santiago, Chile The US government’s debt is getting close to reaching another round number—$18 trillion. It currently stands at more than $17.9 trillion. But what does that really mean? It’s such an abstract number that it’s hard to imagine it. Can you genuinely understand it beyond just…
Picking the best debt-ceiling explainer is a very subjective task. Do you like charts? Then you'll probably like to have the debt ceiling explained in one chart. Do you like movies? This one will explain the debt ceiling in 90 seconds. Do you like cheese from Denmark? Then you will probably like…
China’s benchmark money-market rate is set for the biggest weekly drop since December as demand for cash eased after banks met quarter-end capital requirements.
The seven-day repurchase rate, a gauge of funding availability in the banking system, tumbled 124 basis points, or 1.24 percentage points, to 2.98 percent as of 11:06 a.m. in Shanghai, according to a weighted average from the National Interbank Funding Center. That’s the biggest decline since the five days ended Dec. 27. The rate fell 111 basis points today, the most since March 6.
One reason for global market weakness is investors’ fears that emerging market economies may be heading for a broad crisis, sparked by higher U.S. interest rates and slowing growth in China. Much of the analysis in the last few days has focused on why these nations are less exposed to…
The yuan has recently been something of a safe haven among emerging-market currencies, yet market participants have learned from a bloody lesson over the past week that it is no longer an easy, one-way bet. A sharp fall of both the onshore and offshore yuan against the greenback made the…
To understand why many of China's small property developers are struggling, look no further than Zhejiang Xingrun Real Estate. The once little-known regional developer is now on the brink of becoming one of China's biggest real estate bankruptcies in recent memory. As China's property bubble shows signs of deflating in…
Press conference following the meeting of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank on 3 April 2014 at its premises in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, starting at 2:30 p.m.CET:
Introductory statement by Mario Draghi, President of the ECB.
Question and answer session. Registered journalists pose questions to Mario Draghi, President of the ECB, and to Vítor Constâncio, Vice-President of the EC
Mario Draghi has set the bar high for the European Central Bank’s next meeting Thursday. The bank president’s warning about reduced inflation expectations, made in a speech on Aug. 22, fanned hopes that the ECB may announce additional stimulus measures to boost economic growth and prices. A report Friday showing…
Tags: ecb, bank, draghi, meeting, europe, president, central, mario, european
Runners have target times, golfers judge themselves by their swing, while Mario Draghi watches a technical measure of inflation expectations used by financial markets. Just one problem: it suggests the European Central Bank president is not achieving his objective – and that markets’ fears of eurozone deflation are mounting. Since…
Tags: draghi, central, ecb, rate, starting, mario, european, bank, president
Press conference following the meeting of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank on 6 February 2014 at its premises in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, starting at 2:30 p.m. CET: Introductory statement by Mario Draghi, President of the ECB. Question and answer session. Registered journalists pose questions to Mario Draghi, President…
Press conference following the meeting of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank on 4 September 2014 at its premises in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, starting at 2:30 p.m. CET: Introductory statement by Mario Draghi, President of the ECB. Question and answer session. Registered journalists pose questions to Mario Draghi, President…
Press conference following the meeting of the Governing Council of the European Central Bank on 6 March 2014 at its premises in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, starting at 2:30 p.m. CET: Introductory statement by Mario Draghi, President of the ECB. Question and answer session. Registered journalists pose questions to Mario…
To understand why many of China’s small property developers are struggling, look no further than Zhejiang Xingrun Real Estate.
The once little-known regional developer is now on the brink of becoming one of China’s biggest real estate bankruptcies in recent memory.
As China’s property bubble shows signs of deflating in some areas – in peripheral neighborhoods in lower-tier cities – privately held developers like Zhejiang Xingrun are falling by the wayside, victims of a toxic combination of unjustified optimism about the property market and sky-high interest rates.
One reason for global market weakness is investors’ fears that emerging market economies may be heading for a broad crisis, sparked by higher U.S. interest rates and slowing growth in China. Much of the analysis in the last few days has focused on why these nations are less exposed to…
For 31-year old Beijing resident Wang Yuanzhi, talk about a bubble in Chinese property is not something to be too concerned about. "If you look at the real estate market in China, it has already seen a golden decade of extreme fast growth. There will still be room for growth…
11 Ugly Charts That Confirm China's Dramatic Slowdown During the National People's Congress, China's policymakers announced that it would target 7.5% GDP growth target for 2014. This is down from 7.7% growth in 2013, and the recent data shows that the economy is clearly off to a slower start to…
China’s benchmark money-market rate is set for the biggest weekly drop since December as demand for cash eased after banks met quarter-end capital requirements. The seven-day repurchase rate, a gauge of funding availability in the banking system, tumbled 124 basis points, or 1.24 percentage points, to 2.98 percent as of…
China's central bank is prepared to take its strongest action since 2012 to loosen monetary policy if economic growth slows further, by cutting the amount of cash that banks must keep as reserves, sources involved in internal policy discussions say. A cut would be triggered if growth slips below 7.5…
The West is now living in Putin’s world. It is there not because Putin is right, or even because he is stronger, but because he is taking the initiative. Putin is “wild” while the West is “wary.” While European and American leaders recognize that the world order is undergoing a dramatic change, they cannot quite grasp it. They remain overwhelmed by Putin’s transformation from CEO of Russia, Inc., into an ideology-fueled national leader who will stop at nothing to restore his country’s influence.
International politics may be founded on treaties, but it functions on the basis of rational expectations. If those expectations turn out to be wrong, the prevailing international order collapses. That is precisely what has happened in the course of the Ukrainian crisis.
When it comes to explaining Russia’s Ukrainian adventurism, the West has attempted to hide behind a wall of myths and hope its problems will just go away. There are all sorts of reasons to be stunned and perplexed today. Stunned by the reintroduction of the fears and phobias of the…
Where's Vladimir Putin? Russia's President has been awol for 10 days and the rumour mill is in overdrive Here are some articles on the net about this event Where is Vladimir Putin? What we know about the Russian president's "disappearance." http://www.vox.com/2015/3/13/8212313/putin-missing Vladimir Putin has been 'neutralised' by astealthy coup as…
U.S. bank JP Morgan said on Thursday it would process a payment from Russia's embassy in Kazakhstan to Russian insurance agency Sogaz after blocking it earlier this week over Ukraine-related U.S. sanctions. "Following consultation with our regulators, we are processing this transaction," the bank said in a statement. http://www.reuters.com/
The German government says Russian President Vladimir Putin accepted a proposal by Chancellor Angela Merkel for a fact-finding mission and a "contact group" on Ukraine that could be led by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Government spokesman Georg Streiter said the proposal came in a telephone conversation…
U.S. bank JP Morgan said on Thursday it would process a payment from Russia’s embassy in Kazakhstan to Russian insurance agency Sogaz after blocking it earlier this week over Ukraine-related U.S. sanctions.
“Following consultation with our regulators, we are processing this transaction,” the bank said in a statement.
When it comes to explaining Russia’s Ukrainian adventurism, the West has attempted to hide behind a wall of myths and hope its problems will just go away. There are all sorts of reasons to be stunned and perplexed today. Stunned by the reintroduction of the fears and phobias of the…
The German government says Russian President Vladimir Putin accepted a proposal by Chancellor Angela Merkel for a fact-finding mission and a "contact group" on Ukraine that could be led by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Government spokesman Georg Streiter said the proposal came in a telephone conversation…
The West is now living in Putin’s world. It is there not because Putin is right, or even because he is stronger, but because he is taking the initiative. Putin is “wild” while the West is “wary.” While European and American leaders recognize that the world order is undergoing a…
Is Russia ready to cut up its plastic? After Visa and MasterCard stopped processing some Russian transactions in response to U.S. sanctions, Moscow says it could launch a homegrown payment system that could be ready in as little as six months, according to German Gref, chief of the country’s largest…
Tags: payment, u.s, sanctions, russian, processing, russia, bank
This month marks the fifth anniversary of the current bull market on Wall Street, making it one of the longest and strongest in history. Yet U.S. stock ownership is at a record low and less than half of Americans trust banks and financial services. And in the last two weeks, the New York attorney general and the Commodities Futures Trading Commission in Washington have both launched investigations into high-frequency computerized stock trading that now controls more than half the market.
The probes were announced just ahead of a much anticipated book on the subject by best-selling author Michael Lewis called “Flash Boys.” In it, Lewis argues that the stock market is now rigged to benefit a group of insiders that have made tens of billions of dollars exploiting computerized trading. The story is told through an unlikely cast of characters who figured out what was going on and have devised a plan to correct it. It could have a huge impact on Wall Street. Tonight, Michael Lewis talks about it for the first time.
A new book by author Michael Lewis describes how trading algorithms that detect and exploit tiny, fleeting profit opportunities, called high-frequency traders, have transformed the stock market. And not by ripping off middle class investors. But that doesn't mean there are no problems. Read on to understand what high-frequency trading is, and…
Tags: trading, high-frequency, stock, market, called, york, hft
Are you frightened of high-frequency trading (HFT)? Are you concerned about what it might do to your stock portfolio? If so, you may have been exposed to Michael Lewis over the past few months. It’s been hard not to be, especially if you watch financial shows on TV or read…
Fears that high-speed traders have been rigging the U.S. stock market went mainstream last week thanks to allegations in a book by financial author Michael Lewis, but there may be a more serious threat to investors: the increasing amount of trading that happens outside of exchanges. Some former regulators and…
Thank you for that kind introduction. And my sincere thanks to everyone here for joining this lunchtime session. It’s a great pleasure and privilege to return to New York. I want to offer a few reflections this afternoon on market innovation and, in particular, the on-going debate around high frequency…
Tags: market, trading, stock, financial, services, york, hft, global, high-frequency
For the past month, high-frequency trading has been under attack. The first volley came on a Sunday night in late March, when author Michael Lewis, introducing his new book Flash Boys on the news magazine program 60 Minutes, delivered the most perfectly succinct of all headline-grabbing comments. "The markets are…
The eight biggest U.S. banks earned more than $80 billion last year, with much of that coming from government subsidies, according to a new report from the International Monetary Fund. Worst of all, the Dodd-Frank reforms and Basel III regulations haven’t done much to reduce these subsidies.
Banks make money by borrowing at lower interest rates than they earn on their loans and other assets. Banks’ borrowing costs are lower than they might be otherwise because their debt is guaranteed by the government. Deposit insurance is an explicit form of government protection, and banks pay for it.
October 22, 2014 Santiago, Chile The US government’s debt is getting close to reaching another round number—$18 trillion. It currently stands at more than $17.9 trillion. But what does that really mean? It’s such an abstract number that it’s hard to imagine it. Can you genuinely understand it beyond just…