Monday, June 01, 2015

Today's Headlines

Bloomberg:   
  • Greece, Creditors Blame Each Other for Lack of Progress. (video)
  • Greece’s Creditors to Meet in Berlin to Discuss Plans. Top level talks were said to be taking place in Berlin on Monday evening to hammer out a proposal that would be presented to Greece as its only realistic chance of avoiding default and safeguarding its membership of the euro. German Chancellor Angela Merkel met with French President Francois Hollande and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker in the German capital. Representatives of creditor institutions are said to be preparing to convene with them this evening to discuss a plan to resolve the deadlock over Greece, according to people familiar with the plan. They asked not to be named because the negotiations are private.
  • ECB Has Limited Power to Help the Asset-Backed Securities Market. Investors are demanding the highest yield premium in four months to hold asset-backed securities in euros as stimulus measures fail to revive the region’s $253 billion market. The European Central Bank has bought 6.2 billion euros ($6.8 billion) of notes since November as part of a 1.1 trillion-euro quantitative-easing program that also includes covered bonds and government debt. The purchases of securities backed by business loans, mortgages and credit card debt, which are meant to encourage lenders to offer more credit, are short of expectations, according to Dipesh Mehta, a director of securitization research at Barclays Plc in London. “The recent widening of ABS bonds have made it clearer than ever in investors’ eyes that the ECB has only limited powers to rejuvenate the eurozone ABS market,” Mehta said. “The ongoing uncertainty around Greece isn’t helping either. 
  • European Stocks Rise Amid Greek Deal Optimism, U.S. Factory Data. European shares were little changed as investors watched developments in Greek debt talks. Health-care shares rose, while commodity producers fell. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index climbed 0.2 percent to 400.57 at the close of trading, having risen as much as 0.9 percent.
  • Everyone's Been Worried About Liquidity in the Wrong Bond Market. Trouble is lurking in the biggest market there is. For all the talk of slumping liquidity in the corporate bond market, it's the boring old U.S. Treasury market where the trend has been most pronounced.
  • Fischer Says Bankers Should Be Punished for Financial Crimes. Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer said bankers who have engaged in wrongdoing should be punished, and he chided the industry for pushing back against financial regulations adopted to prevent another conflagration. “Individuals should be punished for any misconduct they personally engaged in,” Fischer said in a speech to bankers Monday in Toronto. While massive fines are being imposed on banks, “one does not see the individuals who were responsible for some of the worst aspects of bank behavior, for example in the Libor and foreign-exchange scandals, being punished severely.”
  • Bay Area Broker Becomes Billionaire on Sub $10 Million Listings. The company’s collection of retail shops, offices and apartments has made it the country’s leader in private client transactions, which generally are below $10 million and make up the bulk of U.S. commercial real estate sales. It’s also made the brokerage’s founder, George Marcus, a billionaire. The low-profile billionaire gave more than $3 million along with his wife to the Democratic party in 2014, making him the eighth-largest donor, according to Politico. In July, Marcus hosted a fundraiser at his home in the Los Altos Hills attended by President Barack Obama.
CNBC:
ZeroHedge:
Business Insider:
LA Times:
  • Elon Musk's growing empire is fueled by $4.9 billion in government subsidies. Los Angeles entrepreneur Elon Musk has built a multibillion-dollar fortune running companies that make electric cars, sell solar panels and launch rockets into space. And he's built those companies with the help of billions in government subsidies. Tesla Motors Inc., SolarCity Corp. and Space Exploration Technologies Corp., known as SpaceX, together have benefited from an estimated $4.9 billion in government support, according to data compiled by The Times. The figure underscores a common theme running through his emerging empire: a public-private financing model underpinning long-shot start-ups.

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