The Irish government is upset about its zombie banks:
Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny said it’s “grossly unfair” that taxpayers alone should carry the cost of bailing out the country’s banks as he pushed for lower rates on a European-led rescue loan.
Kenny, on a visit to Washington where he says he’s trying to repair Ireland’s “damaged” reputation, called for changes to the rescue package by the European Union and the International Monetary Fund to avoid a situation where Ireland struggles to pay back its loan and can’t generate economic growth.
“It is grossly unfair to expect the taxpayer to have to pay 100 percent for the reckless lending practices of banks which caused this in the first instance,” Kenny said yesterday in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s “InBusiness With Margaret Brennan” that will be broadcast today. The 5.8 percent average rate Ireland pays for its loans is “too severe,” he said.
…
Kenny stopped short of saying who should pay along with taxpayers. Asked about the treatment of senior bondholders, Kenny said that his government will put no additional cash into banks “until you see the scale of what the liability is, until there is an understanding of what might be here.”
There was cheering in B-Comm classes across Canada today as Harris Fricker, CEO of GMP Capital, demonstrated that you can achieve enormous success on Bay Street without the ability to construct a coherent argument. There’s really not much worth quoting, but here’s the conclusion:
We cannot help but feel that a major opportunity has been lost to preserve a distinctly Canadian success story. Will the acquisition by the LSEG imperil our markets or impede the formation of capital in Canada? Not at all likely. Is the loss of the standalone status of the TMX regrettable in the face of its success to date and its potential going forward? Undeniably.
There is no support for either concluding assertion in the preceeding mish-mash of unrelated statements.
Mr. Fricker’s effort demonstrates:
- that whatever the TMX debate is about, it has nothing to do with what’s being said in public
- the intellectual bankruptcy of public disourse in Canada.
We’re getting involved in another foreign war:
The United Nations Security Council voted today to ground Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi’s air force and to grant military authority to the U.S. and its allies to protect civilians and population centers threatened by Qaddafi’s forces.
It seems quite clear to me that the Qaddafi regime is awful, both domestically and internationally, but I’m not sure why we think the alternatives are better. Nobody’s bothered to explain it to me. I’m with Haass:
“Why is anyone so sure that the people we’d be helping, that they would necessarily be dramatically better than Gadhafi?” said Richard Haass, president of the Council on Foreign Relations.
So we’ll happily support the Libyan rebels, giving them carte blanche to fight Quaddafi – just like we gave bin Laden carte blanche to fight the Soviets.
It was a mixed day on the Canadian preferred share market, with PerpetualDiscounts down 13bp, FixedResets gaining 2bp and DeemedRetractibles up 16bp. Volume was on the light side.
| HIMIPref™ Preferred Indices These values reflect the December 2008 revision of the HIMIPref™ Indices Values are provisional and are finalized monthly |
|||||||
| Index | Mean Current Yield (at bid) |
Median YTW |
Median Average Trading Value |
Median Mod Dur (YTW) |
Issues | Day’s Perf. | Index Value |
| Ratchet | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | -0.0602 % | 2,380.0 |
| FixedFloater | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | -0.0602 % | 3,579.4 |
| Floater | 2.53 % | 2.35 % | 46,660 | 21.38 | 4 | -0.0602 % | 2,569.7 |
| OpRet | 4.91 % | 3.68 % | 53,705 | 1.16 | 9 | -0.2717 % | 2,389.5 |
| SplitShare | 5.10 % | 3.53 % | 167,180 | 1.01 | 5 | -0.2040 % | 2,479.6 |
| Interest-Bearing | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | -0.2717 % | 2,185.0 |
| Perpetual-Premium | 5.75 % | 5.56 % | 130,689 | 13.90 | 10 | 0.0239 % | 2,031.0 |
| Perpetual-Discount | 5.53 % | 5.54 % | 121,102 | 14.38 | 14 | -0.1338 % | 2,115.1 |
| FixedReset | 5.19 % | 3.64 % | 235,311 | 2.96 | 56 | 0.0190 % | 2,272.1 |
| Deemed-Retractible | 5.26 % | 5.33 % | 355,446 | 8.28 | 53 | 0.1564 % | 2,070.5 |
| Performance Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Change | Notes |
| CIU.PR.C | FixedReset | -2.04 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2041-03-17 Maturity Price : 24.45 Evaluated at bid price : 24.50 Bid-YTW : 3.99 % |
| BAM.PR.J | OpRet | -1.97 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Soft Maturity Maturity Date : 2018-03-30 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.85 Bid-YTW : 4.82 % |
| W.PR.H | Perpetual-Discount | 1.08 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2041-03-17 Maturity Price : 23.95 Evaluated at bid price : 24.26 Bid-YTW : 5.76 % |
| HSB.PR.C | Deemed-Retractible | 1.12 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2022-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 24.31 Bid-YTW : 5.45 % |
| FTS.PR.G | FixedReset | 1.13 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2013-10-01 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.85 Bid-YTW : 3.89 % |
| Volume Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Shares Traded |
Notes |
| MFC.PR.F | FixedReset | 256,800 | Recent new issue. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2022-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 24.66 Bid-YTW : 4.27 % |
| NA.PR.N | FixedReset | 109,435 | Issuer bid. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2013-09-14 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 26.96 Bid-YTW : 2.26 % |
| CM.PR.G | Deemed-Retractible | 103,855 | Nesbitt crossed 100,000 at 25.25. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2014-05-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 25.34 Bid-YTW : 5.21 % |
| TD.PR.O | Deemed-Retractible | 92,979 | RBC crossed 25,000 at 24.70; Desjardins crossed 50,000 at the same price. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Hard Maturity Maturity Date : 2022-01-31 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 24.64 Bid-YTW : 5.13 % |
| TRP.PR.C | FixedReset | 82,900 | Nesbitt crossed 50,000 at 25.25. TD crossed 15,000 at 25.31. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2041-03-17 Maturity Price : 25.25 Evaluated at bid price : 25.30 Bid-YTW : 4.17 % |
| NA.PR.O | FixedReset | 81,715 | Issuer bid. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2014-03-17 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 28.27 Bid-YTW : 2.32 % |
| There were 28 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares. | |||
| Wide Spread Highlights | ||
| Issue | Index | Quote Data and Yield Notes |
| CM.PR.K | FixedReset | Quote: 26.34 – 26.90 Spot Rate : 0.5600 Average : 0.3707 YTW SCENARIO |
| CIU.PR.C | FixedReset | Quote: 24.50 – 25.05 Spot Rate : 0.5500 Average : 0.3752 YTW SCENARIO |
| BNS.PR.Z | FixedReset | Quote: 24.27 – 24.85 Spot Rate : 0.5800 Average : 0.4142 YTW SCENARIO |
| TRP.PR.A | FixedReset | Quote: 25.43 – 25.78 Spot Rate : 0.3500 Average : 0.2577 YTW SCENARIO |
| SLF.PR.G | FixedReset | Quote: 25.05 – 25.30 Spot Rate : 0.2500 Average : 0.1683 YTW SCENARIO |
| SLF.PR.D | Deemed-Retractible | Quote: 21.26 – 21.50 Spot Rate : 0.2400 Average : 0.1653 YTW SCENARIO |
[…] Society of Financial Analysts repeated problems with their financial statements! It was just yesterday that Harris Fricker, CEO of GMP Capital, wrote an incomprehensible essay in the Globe telling TMX […]