9th Nov - Weekender: Best of The Week

Picks from my ending week's posts (previous Best of The Week here).

 

Previously on MoreLiver’s:

9-Nov EU Open

8-Nov - US Close

8-Nov US Open

Follow ‘MoreLiver’ on Twitter or Facebook

EUROPE

Europe's Unfinished Currency: the political economics of the Euro – LSE

Dr Thomas Mayer is Senior Fellow at the Center of Financial Studies at Goethe University Frankfurt and Senior Advisor to Deutsche Bank’s management and key clients. From 2010 to 2012 he was Chief Economist of Deutsche Bank Group and Head of Deutsche Bank Research. He has previously held positions at Goldman Sachs and the International Monetary Fund. (audio mp3, presentation pdf 

Weekly Brussels blog roundup: defeat for UK government over EU budget, populism vs. technocracy, and would independence help or hurt Catalonia’s economy? – europp / LSE

TARGET2 as a scapegoat for German errors – voxeu.org

A systemic Eurozone breakup would be the mother of all financial crises. This column – a rejoinder to Hans-Werner Sinn’s recent column – agrees that Germany would lose massively from a breakup, but argues that the ultimate source is the €600 billion current account surpluses it ran with other EZ nations during the good years, not the TARGET2 system. German banks lent vast amounts to peripheral countries without doing a proper credit analysis. No-one other than Germany itself is responsible for taking on these risks.

Why Self-Sufficiency Matters (Or Why Europe's Growth Outlook Is Not Good!) – ZH

Bridgewater’s note.

Complete European Sovereign Event Calendar Until 2013 – ZH

Buiter tackles Target2 (again) – alphaville / FT

The rough conclusion is that even in the event of a catastrophic Eurozone meltdown, the Bundesbank would be just fine (at least in accounting terms) because it would end up as the de facto sole owner of the ECB. The German people would be less so, since the value of domestic and external assets would take a pummeling, but that’s not the fault of Target2.

German Intelligence Report: Aid to Cyprus Could Benefit Russian Oligarchs – Spiegel

Cyprus could soon seek aid from the European Union's bailout fund. But according to a secret report by Germany's BND intelligence service, the aid might mainly benefit Russian oligarchs who have parked illegal money in bank accounts in Cyprus, SPIEGEL has learned. Russian deposits there total $26 billion.

All is calm in the EZ…or is it? – economistmeg

Greece: exit still on its way, only write down reduces debt sufficiently Ireland: No growth, debt on unsustainable path Spain: probably pushed into a full troika programme, when bailout cash runs out, Spain could lose market access and restructure.

The Eurozone breakup debate: uncertainty still reigns – voxeu.org

Jens Nordvig: Conversations about the breakup of the Eurozone are changing. This column argues that an 'avoid breakup at all costs' dogmatism may not be a prudent view. Getting good data may well be difficult, but any arguments about the cost of a Eurozone breakup must be compared to the ongoing cost of the status quo.

A Brief Review of the Eurosystem’s TARGET2 Imbalances – Place du Luxembourg

More pain for Spain – MacroScope

EU to be federalised in the long run, Merkel says – euobserver

"Of course the European Commission will one day become a government, the EU council a second chamber and the European Parliament will have more powers. But for now, we have to focus on the euro and give people a little bit of time to come along," she said.

Spain’s fantastical deficit forecasts – alphaville / FT

Spain’s fiscal management seems to increasingly be a case of plugging holes, watching new ones appear, ignoring them, then relenting and also plugging those… all while delaying a clearly inevitable request for assistance from Brussels.

Europe Back In The Spotlight – Tim Duy’s Fed Watch

Yes, I remain a Euroskeptic.  Maybe it is just in my blood.  Europe still looks ugly, and will continue to be so for the next year at least (I tend to think wave after wave of austerity will push the Eurozone into a multi-year malaise, but let's just take it one year at a time for now).

Who will stop the Sado-Monetarists as jobless youth hits 58pc in Greece? – The Telegraph

Upholding euro membership has by now become an act of cruelty. It is not being done in the interests of Greeks. It is being done for the Project, by enforcers of the Project.

UNITED STATES
Going Over the Fiscal Cliff – EconoMonitor

James Hamilton: The most likely eventual outcome seems to me to be much more modest tax increases and spending cuts than implied by the full “fiscal cliff” scenario. A key question is then whether political brinksmanship, particularly the strategy of first going off the cliff before trying to find a way back up, could in and of itself exert significant costs.

From "Buy The Presidential Election" To "Sell The Tax Hike" – ZH

GS: Capital gains and dividend taxes have garnered less attention than other parts of the Fiscal Cliff. However, with those taxes scheduled to rise at year-end based on current law, our conversations with clients show a renewed sense of urgency as the deadline approaches.

FIRE IN THE DISCO! – The Reformed Broker

First, let us discuss the Cliff that no one else seems to want to acknowledge - The Earnings Cliff! This is a very real phenomenon that is very dangerous for both stocks and the economy as a whole - corporations facing a deceleration in earnings growth or an outright drop in year-over-year profits DO NOT INCREASE SPENDING AND HIRING.

Tail risks lurk in the shadows. Fiscal cliff is out in the open. – Sober Look

The US fiscal cliff is clearly on people's minds and is quickly becoming the dominant concern in the financial community. If this survey were conducted today, the percentage of participants who would view the upcoming budget cuts and tax increases as the main risk to their portfolios would increase sharply. In fact, based on Google Trends, the public's concerns about the US fiscal cliff have spiked recently.

On Long-Term Fiscal Probity? Or Another 'Quick Fix'... – ZH

UBS believes that if the US economy dips into recession next year, operating earnings—which are near peak levels—could easily plunge by a fifth.

CHINA

'Election' Part 1: China's Political Process – ZH

'Election' Part 2: China's Market Implications – ZH

Goldman’s longer notes

The Chinese Credit Bubble - Full Frontal – ZH

GS: The rapid rise of corporate leverage to 130% of GDP in 2011 - one of the highest corporate leverage ratios in the world - is concerning.

ECONOMICS / BANKING

Memo to Central Banks: You’re debasing more than our currency – John Mauldin / The Big Picture

SocGen’s client note.

Crisis Spotting, Czech style – alphaville / FT

Forty years of crises across 36 EU and OECD countries. They found that while house and share price falls offer a ‘late” early warning of the onset of a crisis, the best leading crisis indicator is “growth in domestic credit to the private sector”.

Too Big To Handle – Simon Johnson / Project Syndicate

In the discussion of whether the largest US financial institutions have become too big, a sea change in opinion is underway. Indeed, the only people still arguing that these organizations can be managed in a way that generates sustainable value for shareholders and keeps taxpayers out of harm’s way tend to work for them.

What the Banks contribute to GDP – Golem XIV

This article takes a short critical look at the figures the banks use in order to say how vitally important they are. As we all know it has been, throughout the bank debacle, important to the Banks that they be able to say how central they are to the economy of every nation. It forms the first line of defence in arguments over the bail outs.

MARKETS

The Four Regimes (And 40 Years) Of Equity Valuation – ZH

UBS: Stocks tend to experience very long periods (5-20 years) of either anemic or exceptional returns… Investment Regimes are defined by secular multiple expansion or contraction… Over the past two years, the key metric for valuing stocks has shifted from investment grade to non-investment grade yields. Given the fiscal situation in both the U.S. and Europe, we believe that this regime will likely persist until structural imbalances are meaningfully addressed by policymakers.

Economic and Market Outlook – Nordea (pdf)

If markets go more into risk-off heading into the winter, long-term investors should be looking to switch more into risk-on trades.

QUANT / TRADING

Morningstar Advisor – Morningstar

Factor analysis, machine trading, most excellent magazine issue

Quantifying the Behavior of Stock Correlations Under Market Stress – Nature

We find the striking result that the average correlation among these stocks scales linearly with market stress reflected by normalized DJIA index returns on various time scales. Consequently, the diversification effect which should protect a portfolio melts away in times of market losses, just when it would most urgently be needed. Our empirical analysis is consistent with the interesting possibility that one could anticipate diversification breakdowns, guiding the design of protected portfolios.

Traders Copy Academics Who Copy Traders – Dealbreaker

Everyone worries about hedge funds all doing the same trades and being correlated with each other and this paper is sort of loose evidence of that: there are anomalies in market efficiency, and they are not “publicly known” to the academic literature, but they are correlated with each other, perhaps suggesting that enough people know about them to all be trading them together.

Q&A: The price of paying attention – The Big Picture

Bogle on Active Management – The Big Picture

Founder and Former Chief Executive of the Vanguard Group and President of the Bogle Financial Markets Research Center Before the United States Senate Governmental Affairs Subcommittee on Financial Management, the Budget, and International Security 3-Nov-2012

OFF-TOPICS
(video) The Global Drug Wars – LSE

How did the international drug control system arise, why has it proven so durable in the face of failure, and is there hope for reform? David Courtwright is professor of history at the University of North Florida. Nigel Inkster is the former director of operations and intelligence for MI6. William McAllister is special projects director at Office of the Historian, US Department of State. Ethan Nadelmann is founder and executive director of the Drug Policy Alliance. Slides: McAllister (pdf) and Courtwright (pdf)

FiveBooks Interviews: Keith Jeffery on the Secret Service – The Browser

The author of a history of MI6 tells us about the evolution of the secret intelligence services, their representation in fiction, and the man Fleming may have had in mind when he created James Bond

IN FINNISH

Henrik Kuningas: Kuningashai (1988) – City

Jotkut osaavat tulla näyttämölle oikeaan aikaan, toiset poistua sieltä maineensa kukkuloilla. Kuningas osasi molemmat.

Ammattilainen pinteessä (1989) – City

Arctosin osakesalkun ryöstöstä tuomittu nuori optiokauppias puhuu muun muassa ahneuden rajoista aikana, jolloin kaverille ei jätetä.

Eduskunta II – Satiiri veljeskunnista – Olli Pusa / US Puheenvuoro

 

Olli Pusa: Renkien kaappaus – pusa.fi (pdf)

Suomalaisista työeläkejärjestelmää mainostetaan maailman parhaaksi. Sitä on jopa ehdotettu suomalaiseksi vientituotteeksi EU:ssa. Olen 30 vuoden aikana erilaisissa tehtävissä läheltäkin seurannut työeläkejärjestelmän tapahtumia ja epäilys näiden mainospuheiden paikkansapitävyydestä on suuri. Työeläkejärjestelmä onkin monella tapaa epäonnistunut, ajastaan jälkeen jäänyt rakennelma. Sen ongelmia ei vain uskalleta sanoa ääneen. 

Laittomuutta eläkejärjestelmässä – mitä tekevät valvojat? – Olli Pusa / US Puheenvuoro

Wahlroos moitti politiikkoja eurokriisin pahentamisesta – HS

Näin Wahlroos ratkaisisi pankkikriisin kahdessa viikossa – IS

Kumpi vie ja kumpi vikisee, EKP vai Espanja? – Jan Hurri / TalSa

EKP:llä on keinot ja ehkä kiusaus painostaa Espanjaa anomaan muiden euromaiden tukiohjelmaa niin kuin kaksi vuotta sitten Irlannissa. Espanja ei kuitenkaan ole Irlanti – vaan niin suuri, että sillä on itselläänkin kiristyskeinoja käytössään. Kujanjuoksu on alkanut, mutta kumpi vie ja kumpi vikisee?

Pekka Ervasti: Paska reissu – YLE

Politrukkien palkkiomatkoilla on pitkät ja kunniakkaat perinteet kepussa - aivan kuten ikävistä sotkuista annetuilla selityksilläkin. Silti jokin Las Palmasin -matkassa haisee, kirjoittaa Pekka Ervasti blogissaan.

Follow ‘MoreLiver’ on Twitter or Facebook