How do you say “Bear Stearns” in Chinese?: Headlines about the credit markets in China certainly feel like a “Bear Stearns moment” is not too far away. China expert Charlene Chu sat down with The Telegraph and discussed why that may or may not happen. “Whether or not a single trust product like this [the ICBC trust] would be the start of the unravelling is much harder to tell, because you’ve got such an interventionist government in China. This is going to be different to other markets where market forces are allowed to play out. Here the authorities get involved and that means these kind of defaults can remain one-off and isolated for quite a while. The critical question is that at some point are these one-off issues going to turn into a very big wave of defaults that it is going to be very difficult for the authorities to manage in the same way these been able to manage the one-offs.”
Better late than never: FT’s Gillian Tett joins the party a bit late in shining the spotlight on alternative asset managers. Seems like a few policymakers started asking questions about those big firms a few months ago.
How B-Ds can become XL: Pershing offers up its latest installment of “The Broker-Dealer of the Future” suggests organic growth of existing relationships, rather than recruitment, is the primary engine of growth for B-Ds.
Timber!!!: Looks like the CFTC is doing its level best to kill as many trees as possible. Maybe this will lead to the environmental lobby clamoring to repeal Dodd-Frank?
Underwater bankers: The FT’s Robert Shrimsley pens what is, by far, the funniest take-down of banker bonus culture I have ever read.