FURTHER FURTHER READING
- What's an idea worth?
- Keep insider trading illegal.
- Obama has set a poor test for choosing a new Fed chair.
- Electricity market rules did not provide a worthy opponent for JPMorgan's brainpower.
- The economic signal sent by cheap guacamole.
- The European economic crisis in two charts.
- The financial crisis cost more than $14 trillion: Dallas Fed study.
ROUND-UP
FT markets round-up: "US and European equity indices remained trapped within tight ranges in the run-up to a series of central bank meetings and important data releases on both sides of the Atlantic. The key event will be the conclusion of the Federal Reserve's Open Market Committee meeting on Wednesday, which could offer fresh hints about when the US central bank might start scaling back its quantitative easing programme. Many in the markets expect this "tapering" to begin in September. Some support for equity markets came from a broadly encouraging batch of corporate earnings from the likes of Pfizer in the US and EDF in Europe. However, neither the S&P 500 in New York nor the pan-European FTSE Eurofirst 300 managed to make much headway, with both ending less than 0.1 per cent firmer. But the US results season has so far been generally positive for Wall Street. At the start of the week, with 58 per cent of the S&P 500's market capitalisation having reported, 3.5 per cent of aggregate earnings had beaten forecasts, said Morgan Stanley." (Financial Times)
Tourre trial told of 'land of make believe': "Former Goldman Sachs trader Fabrice Tourre was accused by lawyers for the US Securities and Exchange Commission of lying under oath and living in a "land of make believe", as attorneys on both sides of the high-profile case made their final arguments. The 34-year-old "was willing to lie to you under oath on the witness stand to get out of trouble", Matthew Martens, the SEC's lead attorney, told the jury on Tuesday. "Mr Tourre's land of make believe is not a defence to fraud."" (Financial Times)
Obama offers tax 'grand bargain': "Barack Obama on Tuesday withdrew a demand that corporate tax reform be coupled with higher taxes on the wealthy in a bid to convince Republicans to support a fresh stimulus for the economy. The White House said it had devised a new "grand bargain", taking cues from some "prominent Republicans", that would establish a top tax rate of 28 per cent for companies and close tax loopholes, saying the president would agree to these terms in the absence of a larger deficit reduction deal that has eluded Mr Obama for years." (Financial Times)
Global fertiliser shake-up after cartel falls apart: "One of the two big cartels controlling the potash market has fallen apart after a leading Russian producer of the vital ingredient in fertiliser announced its withdrawal from the group, sending sector share prices tumbling. In a move likened to a break-up of Opec, the oil producers' club that controls output, Uralkali pulled out of the Belarus Potash Corporation export cartel after it accused its Belarusian partner of violating an agreement and selling outside the partnership." (Financial Times)
JPMorgan to pay $410m to settle power probe: "JPMorgan Chase is to pay $410m to settle allegations from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that it manipulated power markets in California and the Midwest. Ferc, which regulates gas, electricity and oil networks, announced on Tuesday that JPMorgan would pay $285m in a civil penalty to the US Treasury and give up $125m of "unjust profits", with the bulk of the latter amount going to Californian electricity consumers." (Financial Times)
BoE helped sell looted Nazi gold: "The Bank of England played a vital role in one of the darkest episodes in central banking history, facilitating the sale of gold looted by the Nazis after their invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1939. According to a hitherto unpublished history of the BoE's activities in and around the second world war, the UK's central bank sold gold on behalf of the Reichsbank – which Germany's central bank had seized from its Czech counterpart – after the UK government had frozen all Czech assets held in Britain following the Nazi invasion." (Financial Times)
