“Some of the other banks closed their internet offerings at 9pm. Just think about that for a minute. ‘The internet is closed.’”
Thierry Porté, CEO of Shinsei Bank, shows just how far Japan’s banks fell behind the rest of the world during 15 years of economic stagnation [see this month's cover story, Japan emerges from the shadows]
“Look at this insanity. Waste, corruption, consumption, our public services falling apart. And debt, debt, debt we shall have for years.” What Juan Pablo Pérez Alfonso, then energy minister of Venezuela and one of the founders of Opec, said in 1975 in the wake of that era’s oil price boom. Will the same fate befall his and other oil-dependent emerging-market economies as the oil price approaches $70 per barrel? [See What happens if the black bubble pops?, this issue]
“The announcement that the lead S&P analyst Scott Sprinzen will be moving to cover financial institutions seemed to help the equity rally. Now we must admit that there have been times when we thought that S&P had acted somewhat inconsistently over the last few years with the ratings of the autos, but at no time have we believed that the sector’s problems are down to one analyst.”
Gary Jenkins, head of credit strategy at Deutsche Bank, analyses the reaction to Standard & Poor’s decision to downgrade Ford’s rating two notches to BB–. On the same day, it was announced that Sprinzen was to move to a new sector coverage. Despite news of the downgrade, Ford’s stock leapt by 4% on that day’s trading