national-global

Morning Scan: So Much for a Goldman Tell-All; HSBC Bonus Spin

02/25/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ... Unmasked: Andrew Ross Sorkin has discovered the secret identity of the person behind @GSElevatorGossip, a popular Twitter handle that purportedly discloses comments overheard in Goldman Sachs' elevators and, surprise, surprise, the guy never worked at Goldman. Per Dealbook, the Twitter user is John Lefevre, a 34-year-old former bond trader now based out of Texas who did work at Citi for seven years. He also apparently was offered a job at Goldman atÂ...

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Morning Scan: Fed Gives Everyone a Reason to Revisit the Financial Crisis; HSBC Earnings

02/24/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ... HSBC Earnings: HSBC's profit rose 9% last year to $22.6 billion, a sum that was short of analysts' $24.5 billion expectations. Per the Journal, "shutting businesses and the continuing runoff of its U.S. consumer finance business" hurt revenue. The bank addressed investor concerns over its exposure to emerging markets, particularly Asia, saying it was "optimistic about the longer-term prospects," but that it did "anticipate greater volatility in 2014." HSBC revealed it plansÂ...

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Morning Scan: Fed's Key Critics; Dimon's Dual Role Safe

02/21/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

No Love for Fed: The Federal Reserve's decision to require foreign banks in the U.S. to hold more capital could pose a conflict for foreign policymakers in their efforts to end too-big-to-fail scenarios, the Journal reports. But that's not the only international conflict expected. The Journal says Federal Reserve Chairwoman Janet Yellen could get "an earful" from foreign nations during the G-20 meeting this weekend about its tapering of asset purchases. Back...

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Fed's Foreign Capital Clout; More Money for Moynihan

02/20/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Is it Time to Tighten Up? That is the question that some Fed officials apparently raised during the central bank's policy meeting last month. Some members showed support for raising interest rates. The Journal notes that, "The fact that the subject came up at all Â... shows how the central bank's policy debate is slowly and subtly evolving." The New York Times discusses how the Fed's minutes portend a further reduction in...

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Morning Scan: Bitcoin, Libor and George Orwell

02/18/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ... Bitcoin Update: The Journal looks at the woes of Mt. Gox. "The travails of Mt. Gox illustrate the convulsions of the bitcoin market as the first generation of companies trading the virtual currency face growing technical and security challenges." Columnist Francesco Guerrera notes, "After weeks marked by technological breakdowns, regulatory issues and general questions over its viability, bitcoin is in the midst of the worst crisis since it was proposed in aÂ...

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Morning Scan: A Frosty Economy; AIG's Cuts; Banks' Lost Clout

02/14/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ... Chilly Economy: The major papers celebrated Valentine's Day by focusing on love, the union of Comcast and Time Warner and Mother Nature's frosty gifts for all of us east of Pasadena. That said, after taking it all in, Scan is fretful about the economic picture. It would be nice to say cabin fever has put Scan and consumers in a funk, but retail sales fell more than expected in January after aÂ...

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Morning Scan: First Volcker Reports Due in July. Scratch That, August. No, It's July, but with April Data

02/13/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Fed Watch: The media honeymoon is definitely over for new Federal Reserve chief Janet Yellen. The Journal reports a potential conflict of interest created by her husband George Akerlof serving on the advisory board of an academic center funded by the Swiss bank UBS, which will soon come under closer Fed supervision. Meanwhile, the Post's Wonkblog says to watch Yellen's counterpart across the pond, Bank of England Governor Mark Carney, for clues...

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Morning Scan: Yellen on the Hill; Traders Using Lasers

02/12/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ...

Spotlight on Yellen: Janet Yellen faced Congress Tuesday for the first time as Federal Reserve chairman. The marathon session Â-- lasting almost six hours Â-- yielded several takeaways pertaining to her forthcoming tenure. A few of the more notable ones circulating among the pundits: Yellen is a dove, which we all pretty much already knew; Yellen is an effective communicator; and Yellen may or may not be a high pressure Fed chair...

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Morning Scan: Blues for Barclays; A Challenge to JPM's $13B Settlement

02/11/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ... Barclays to Cut Jobs, Raise Bonuses: Barclays plans a massive round of layoffs after suffering a quarterly loss of about $845 million, or 514 million pounds. The British bank will slash up to 12,000 of its 140,000 workers in 2014, as it tries to bring down rising expenses Â-- which include a hefty charge for litigation and regulatory penalties Â-- and offset weaker revenue from its investment bank. Those who don't loseÂ...

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Morning Scan: More Headaches for Barclays

02/10/14

Receiving Wide Coverage ... More Headaches for Barclays: British bank Barclays and its regulator are investigating the possible theft and sale of personal data affecting at least 2,000 customers. Barclays believes based on an initial investigation that the breach was limited to customers from its financial planning business, which it closed in 2011. Customers have begun to be notified that their information might have been stolen. The security breaches followed a less than lackluster earnings reportÂ...

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