Christmas Day and even the manufacturers of quality collateral, eurocrats and domestic security agencies are on a holiday. Some very nice articles in this post, but also notice my earlier Holiday Readings and Best of The Week.
Here are my ideas for a headline on Barclays' rumored copper debacle:
In London, leaving copper change is bad manners.
Coppers & robbers
Copper, bugger!
Not copper-bottomed?
Return of Mr Copper.
'PhD in econ' slaps the barrow boys.
PAST
US Macro Summary – Calculated Risk
Market Week Wrap-Up – Trade The News / Pragmatic Capitalism
Week in Review – DealBook / NYT
Weekly Bull/Bear Recap – Rational Capitalist Speculator
Succinct Summation of Week’s Events – The Big Picture
FUTURE
Credit: Weekly Update – Danske Bank (pdf)EMEA Weekly – Danske Bank (pdf)
Weekly Focus (23-Dec) – Danske Bank
Week Ahead – A Dash of Insight
US Macro Week Ahead – Calculated Risk
Economic Calendar – fxstreet.com
Monthly Economic Calendar – fxstreet.com
Economic Calendar – BB
EU calendar – europa.eu
FX option vols – Saxo
Markets Live – alphaville / FT
Debt crisis: live – The Telegraph
Europe Crisis Tracker – WSJ
EURO CRISIS
Future Joseph Jett traders get a Christmas card from Mario Draghi – Bronte Capital
So what are you waiting for? The complexity of the stuff you can trade - all dependent on the above ECB provided carry - is enormous. And surely you are smart enough to run rings around the kids in the risk management department.
Just a little statement that 40 billion of the collateral received by the ECB was newly issued, newly guaranteed Italian debt. The more I think about it, the more uncomfortable I get.
CHRISTMAS READS
Nordic Quack – Slate
Sweden's bizarre tradition of watching Donald Duck cartoons on Christmas Eve.
Last Year For Santa – Forbes
To make it appear that Santa really wrapped their presents, use different wrapping paper (preferably one with images of Santa on them) and use different tags (preferably written in a disguised penmanship).
How Coca-Cola helped shape the modern-day Santa – eatocracy
Eatocracy talked with Phil Mooney, the Coca-Cola Company's Vice President for Heritage Communications (also known as the “in demand Santa man”), to get the lowdown on the how the jolly man came to life.
What Makes Us Happy? (2009) – The Atlantic
… one of the most comprehensive longitudinal studies in history. Its contents, as much literature as science, offer profound insight into the human condition—and into the brilliant, complex mind of the study’s longtime director, George Vaillant.
Abstractions and morality in modern finance – alphaville / FT
Distance from the consequence of our inaction, or insertion of a tool into the action that we take, allows us to make decisions in ways that are logically, and morally, inconsistent.
The King William's College quiz 2011 – The Guardian
Whence did the Spitfires fly? Who dances like a jelly on a plate? Where does the train stop in silence? Yes, it's the big hard quiz of the year
In the Land of the Dear Leader – Frontline
To land at Pyongyang Airport is to surrender all one's normal expectations of modern international travel: there are no jetways, no lines of planes waiting to take off, and no luggage trains snaking around trucks disgorging in-flight meals to waiting aircraft.
Nothing Predicted Happened as Men Conspired With Nature in 2011 – BB
Rampaging natural catastrophes, global financial calamities, the deaths of despots and desperados, the passing of America’s greatest modern technical innovator and roiling protests that shook the Arab world and occupied Wall Street -- they made 2011 a year that will be remembered for its almost unrelenting turmoil.
Special Report: The watchdogs that didn't bark – Reuters
Four years after the banking system nearly collapsed from reckless mortgage lending, federal prosecutors have stayed on the sidelines, even as judges around the country are pointing fingers at possible wrongdoing.
VIEWS FROM BANKS
Morgan Stanley On Why 2012 Will Be The "Payback" For Three Years Of "Miracles" And A US Earnings Recession – ZH
Think of 2012 as the “payback” year….when many of the extraordinary things that happened over the past 3 years go in reverse. I am talking about incremental fiscal stimulus, a weaker US dollar, positive labor productivity, and accelerated capital spending.
"A Markets Carol" - Goldman Scrooge Gets A Visit By The Three Ghosts Of The Global Economy – ZH
We describe the current global situation by referring to the opening line from Charles Dickens’ book (“A Christmas Carol”): ‘The world economy is struggling: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that.’ As in that story, we look at how the world economy is being visited by the “ghosts” of its past, present, and (possible) future: ‘Great Recession’, the ‘Great Eurozone Crisis’ and the ‘Great Stagnation’, respectively.
We describe the current global situation by referring to the opening line from Charles Dickens’ book (“A Christmas Carol”): ‘The world economy is struggling: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that.’ As in that story, we look at how the world economy is being visited by the “ghosts” of its past, present, and (possible) future: ‘Great Recession’, the ‘Great Eurozone Crisis’ and the ‘Great Stagnation’, respectively.
OTHER
In summary, the only way such deals could have been done is if banks were willing to pay over the odds to window-dress and delay losses, or if there are banks out there who’ve gotten regulatory approval for some rather crafty models.
Repo and Securities Lending – N.Y. FED
We provide an overview of the data requirements necessary to monitor repurchase agreements (repos) and securities lending markets for the purposes of informing policymakers and researchers about firm-level and systemic risk. We start by explaining the functioning of these markets, then argue that it is crucial to understand the institutional arrangements. Data collection is currently incomplete. A comprehensive collection should include six characteristics of repo and securities lending trades at the firm level: principal amount, interest rate, collateral type, haircut, tenor, and counterparty.
Germany: Technical Note on Stress Testing – IMF
Germany: Technical Note on Banking Sector Structure – IMF
Germany: Technical Note on Crisis Management Arrangements – IMF
Best of Book Bits 2011 (Part I) – The Capital Spectator
DIVERSION
Stratfor Hacked, 200GB Of Emails, Credit Cards Stolen, Client List Released, Includes MF Global, Rockefeller Foundation – ZH What is it like to have an understanding of very advanced mathematics? – Quora
The 11 Best Psychology and Philosophy Books of 2011 – brain pickings