Daily Reading – November 15, 2010
The Economist: Buttonwood – South Sea QE.
An early attempt to buy government bonds by creating money.
The Wall Street Journal: Open Letter to Ben Bernanke.
We believe the Federal Reserve’s large-scale asset purchase plan (so-called “quantitative easing”) should be reconsidered and discontinued….
FT Alphaville: Greeksville, USA
If you were honestly shocked that Greece’s legendary — in both senses of the word — 2009 budget deficit was revised higher once again at its final estimate, you probably haven’t been following Greek debt for very long.
FT Alphaville: The mother-of-all MERS fixes.
Here’s an, erm, efficient way to solve problems around MERS — the Mortgage Electronic Registration Systems Inc. that’s been making headlines in recent months…
FT Alphaville: Stop stealing our yield!
We mentioned last week how HSBC’s analysts were beginning to worry more about quantitative tightening (QT) moves in emerging markets than further rounds of quantitative easing (QE) in the US and Britain.
FT Alphaville: Don’t be evil, or too reliant on Ireland’s tax regime.
Presenting a possible, and overlooked, ripple from the Irish bailout (which was looking ever more likely, bar the shouting, at pixel time)….
FT Alphaville: Chart of the week: what is driving Chinese inflation?
In October Chinese inflation soared to 4.4 per cent, its highest level in over two years. The authorities are concerned: high inflation suggests that the government’s stimulus measures are causing the economy to overheat.
The Big Picture: Taleb: Bernanke Doesn’t Understand Risks of QE2.
Nassim Taleb, New York University professor and author of “The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable,” discusses the Federal Reserve’s decision to initiate another round of quantitative easing.
The Big Picture: Global RE: The Chinese Are Coming !
We interrupt our usual coverage of US housing to look at a fascinating and different RE market: Purchases of homes in other parts of the world by wealthy Chinese.
Calculated Risk: S&P predicts house prices to fall another 7% to 10% through 2011.
Standard & Poor’s analysts believe home prices will drop between 7% and 10% through 2011 …
The Wall Street Journal: Bucyrus: Hottest IPO Since Google?
Bucyrus (pronounced “Bwu-Cyrus,” for the curious) went public in July 2004 at $18 a share. Caterpillar’s offer is for $92 a share. That’s a 411% stock-price appreciation in a little over six years. Not as good as Apple (1,814% jump over the same period), but not too much worse than the hot IPO of summer 2004: Google…