Woohoo! The Simpsons are officially heading to China
By Ray Kwong | The last time Homer Simpson and his dysfunctional family snuck into China, the Communist Party had them deported.
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Morning coffee: Investors relieved by latest Scotland no-vote polls
MADRID | The Corner | Latest published polls in Scotland, in which the rejection of independence is not at 53%, could reassure investors who fear political instability in the rest of Europe. Today will be scarce in macro data. Only wait for August final inflation data in Germany and France, and weekly U.S. jobs data. European stocks will look into Wall Street, which will be setting the pace.
Ana Patricia Botin appointed Santander’s new chairman
MADRID | The Corner | Everything went by the book: after Spain’s largest bank Santander chairman Emilio Botin died on Wednesday, his daughter Ana Patricia Botín (53) was appointed to succeed him. Her long career in finance, closely supervised by his father, took her to the UK, where Santander bank gets 20% of its profits (Spain accounts for 14%). Britain’s third most powerful woman according to the BBC has now become Spain’s most influential in finance.
Santander bank to appoint new chairman today after Emilio Botin’s death
MADRID | The Corner | Spanish banking landmark Emilio Botin died on Wednesday at 79 of heart attack, but the country’s main lender won’t be without a captain for long: a special board meeting will be hold on Wednesday to designate a new chairman, the bank said in a statement. Scion of a wealthy banking dynasty, Mr Botín was the head of Spanish banking internationalization. Shares in Santander dropped 1.7 percent to 7.6 euros at 0710 GMT after the announcement.
G4 central banks expanded their balance sheets by $4Tr in 4 years
MADRID | The Corner | The size of the ECB’s private asset purchase plan is an enigma. According Mr Draghi, the central lender aims to bring its balance sheet to 2012 levels, that is, from the current €2Tr to €3Tr (March 2012). Some analysts believe he went too far in Jackson Hole and the expansion shall not exceed €450bn (see chart above). Meanwhile, the G4 central lenders have increased their balance sheets in $4Tr since 2010- Only the BoJ continues to expand it at a rate of $650bn/year. And even if the Fed starts unwinding its stimulus program in October, if we add about €450bn annual from the ECB would liquidity would be increased by €1Tr.
China: Credit crunch is no reason to resort the old ways
BEIJING | Caixin Editorial | Turning on the spigot in China would not solve fundamental problems – themselves the result of aggressive stimulus – but nurturing new drivers of growth would.
OECD to Spain: Reform your reforms
MADRID | The Corner | Monetary policy is practically exhausted, there is almost no room for fiscal manoeuver due to the excess of indebtment… the only possible move for Spain now is “reforming the reform,” as Barclays’ Alberto Vigil commented on Tuesday. The Paris-based think-tank, who as usual warned about the huge unemployment rate and the deflation risk on Monday, recommended increasing consumer, property, and green taxes, and reducing employer contributions to social security for less-skilled workers.
How many NPLs in the Greek banking sector are also non-recoverable loans?
ATHENS | By Jens Bastian via MacroPolis | The recent presentation of half-year results by the four systemic banks in Greece – National Bank of Greece (NBG), Piraeus Bank, Alpha Bank and Eurobank – brought a mixture of good news and underlying structural challenges affecting the operational capacity of domestic lenders.
Will we see a second round of QE in Europe soon?
MADRID | The Corner | “The ECB’s quantitative easing in Europe came late compared to the US Fed’s but before we expected,” Barclays’ Alberto Vigil commented on Monday, who believes that a second round of QE stimulus in the eurozone is about to take place soon. “Little bears may become a little like bulls,” he ironizes. The combination of the QE with the strength of the American data has already brought a significant correction of the euro of 7%.
Scotland referendum: ‘Yes’ victory would hurt UK risk premium
MADRID | The Corner | The pound fell around 1% against the euro on Monday and the dollar after the results of the first serious poll giving the victory to “yes” in the referendum on separation for Scotland. According to the latest YouGov poll published a day before, the support of Scottish independents would reach 51% vs 49% who are against if the undecided are excluded. UBS economist Paul Donovan commented about the risk of a narrow result in the polls in favor of remaining in the UK, similar to what happened in Quebec in 1995.