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Chemicals and the Economy

Oil heads back below $30/bbl as hedge funds give up on OPEC

“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it“. George Santayana 9 months ago, it must have seemed such a good idea.  Ed Morse of Citi and other oil market analysts were calling the hedge funds with a sure-fire winning strategy, as the Wall Street Journal reported in May: “Dozens of hedge-fund managers […]

Interesting quote (6)

Nobody ever bothers to deny something that is plainly impossible. So when CEOs of a major bank deny something, the blog always worries. The ‘Interesting quote’ series began in August 2007, when the blog noted Chuck Prince (then CEO of Citgroup) as saying: ‘We see a lot of people on the Street who are scared. […]

Quick updates

Chrysler. Yesterday, Chrysler entered bankruptcy. It will idle most of its US plants during the court proceedings. The government hopes the bankruptcy can be finalised in a “quick visit” of just 30-60 days. But even if this can be achieved, there is little doubt that Chrysler’s suppliers will suffer major write-offs. Bank ‘stress tests’. Widespread […]

LyondellBasell may be largest-ever bankruptcy

The financial fallout from the Lyondell (LBI) bankruptcy continues, as the banks slowly begin to acknowledge their losses. According to Bloomberg, RBS has taken a $1.47bn hit, Citigroup $1.4bn, and Goldman Sachs $850m. UBS are also believed to have lost at least $500m. But like Bank of America (new owners of Merrill Lynch), they have […]

The ‘Minsky moment’ continues

More banks disappeared in Europe and the USA over the weekend: • Bradford and Bingley, one of the UK’s largest mortgage lenders was nationalised. The government will now pay $18bn to Spanish bank Santander to enable a transfer of retail deposits to take place • Fortis, Belgian’s biggest bank, has been partly nationalised by the […]

$514bn and counting

There seems no end to the losses being revealed by the world’s major banks. The total has now reached $514bn. 110 banks and investment firms have now posted writedowns. CitiGroup, the largest US bank, tops the list with $55.1bn of losses, closely followed by Merrill Lynch with $51.8bn. Then comes UBS of Switzerland with $44.2bn. […]

‘Grey hair and good advice matter’

The credit crunch began a year ago. At that time, the blog was very much in a minority when worrying that it might turn into something big enough to impact ‘the real economy’. A year later, it is fascinating to review the crunch’s impact so far, and how people’s attitudes have changed:

Monday, Monday

Monday, Monday, can’t trust that day Monday, Monday, sometimes it just turns out that way Oh Monday morning, you gave me no warning of what was to be These ‘Mamas and Papas’ lyrics certainly sum up Monday this week: • Oil prices went to another record high, just under $140/bbl, as traders worried about the […]

The zeitgeist changes

The German word ‘Zeitgeist’ describes ‘the ethos or mood’ of a select group of people. And the financial zeitgeist is clearly changing. Back in August, I marvelled at the contradictory views then being expressed: ‘We see a lot of people on the Street who are scared. We are not scared. We are not panicked. We […]

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