Looks like Toyota learned lessons from the securities industry:
Former regulators hired by Toyota Motor Corp. helped end at least four U.S. investigations of unintended acceleration by company vehicles in the last decade, warding off possible recalls, court and government records show.
Comrade Peace-Prize’s regulatory reforms are bogging down:
Senator Bob Corker, the lead Republican negotiator on legislation to overhaul financial regulation, said he is considering removing the Federal Reserve’s power to oversee banks.
…
Corker made clear that his agreement to work with Senator Christopher Dodd, the Connecticut Democrat who leads the Senate Banking Committee, would require President Barack Obama to make significant concessions to get his long-stalled financial reform proposal through the Senate.Beyond reducing the Fed’s bank supervisory role, Corker said he could not support a standalone Consumer Financial Protection Agency, a top priority for Obama. In addition, Corker appeared unwilling to back the president’s call for mandatory limits on banks’ size and trading activities. And he suggested he was nearing agreement with Dodd on using bankruptcy laws to wind down large, failing companies, rather than the out-of-court resolution process Obama prefers.
There’s moral hazard in Greece:
BlackRock Inc., the world’s biggest asset manager, increased its Greek bond holdings, betting the European Union won’t allow the nation to default as Prime Minister George Papandreou cuts the bloc’s biggest deficit.
…
“They won’t allow a Lehman-type crisis,” said [Blackrock co-head of European fixed-income Michael] Krautzberger, who helps oversee BlackRock’s $3.35 trillion of assets. “The market has worried too much about an imminent government default in Europe that will not happen because of the solidarity.”
I wonder if countries will be required to produce “living wills”, hold liquid assets, have their management removed, vilified and investigated for fraud, or any of the other fun games we’ve had recently?
Light volume today, as traders were too busy watching money be thrown away to be bothered trying to make any. PerpetualDiscounts were off 6bp, but FixedResets were up 11bp, with yields on the latter issues again beginning to flirt with the 3.50% level.
| 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 | 3.01 % | 3.64 % | 28,817 | 20.24 | 1 | 0.3200 % | 1,836.1 |
| FixedFloater | 5.69 % | 3.77 % | 36,589 | 19.26 | 1 | 0.2625 % | 2,776.8 |
| Floater | 2.02 % | 1.75 % | 42,050 | 23.16 | 4 | 0.5795 % | 2,279.6 |
| OpRet | 4.84 % | -2.36 % | 103,655 | 0.09 | 13 | 0.0324 % | 2,325.0 |
| SplitShare | 6.31 % | 3.63 % | 134,610 | 0.08 | 2 | 0.0871 % | 2,130.6 |
| Interest-Bearing | 0.00 % | 0.00 % | 0 | 0.00 | 0 | 0.0324 % | 2,126.0 |
| Perpetual-Premium | 5.75 % | 5.26 % | 87,366 | 2.00 | 7 | -0.1072 % | 1,901.3 |
| Perpetual-Discount | 5.83 % | 5.86 % | 166,945 | 14.08 | 69 | -0.0601 % | 1,810.2 |
| FixedReset | 5.41 % | 3.52 % | 313,411 | 3.78 | 42 | 0.1109 % | 2,186.1 |
| Performance Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Change | Notes |
| PWF.PR.K | Perpetual-Discount | -1.32 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2040-02-12 Maturity Price : 20.86 Evaluated at bid price : 20.86 Bid-YTW : 5.99 % |
| BAM.PR.K | Floater | 1.10 % | YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2040-02-12 Maturity Price : 16.55 Evaluated at bid price : 16.55 Bid-YTW : 2.39 % |
| Volume Highlights | |||
| Issue | Index | Shares Traded |
Notes |
| TRI.PR.B | Floater | 226,700 | Nesbitt crossed three blocks, one of 125,000 and two of 50,000, all at 22.35. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2040-02-12 Maturity Price : 22.01 Evaluated at bid price : 22.25 Bid-YTW : 1.75 % |
| RY.PR.A | Perpetual-Discount | 128,619 | Nesbitt crossed 100,000 at 20.00. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2040-02-12 Maturity Price : 19.96 Evaluated at bid price : 19.96 Bid-YTW : 5.60 % |
| BNS.PR.P | FixedReset | 78,256 | RBC crossed 20,000 at 26.45, then Desjardins crossed 49,600 at 26.42. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2013-05-25 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 26.42 Bid-YTW : 3.21 % |
| SLF.PR.C | Perpetual-Discount | 49,985 | Nesbitt crossed 40,000 at 19.25. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Limit Maturity Maturity Date : 2040-02-12 Maturity Price : 19.25 Evaluated at bid price : 19.25 Bid-YTW : 5.87 % |
| TD.PR.E | FixedReset | 32,625 | National crossed 25,000 at 27.95. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2014-05-30 Maturity Price : 25.00 Evaluated at bid price : 27.95 Bid-YTW : 3.38 % |
| TD.PR.N | OpRet | 31,720 | RBC crossed 30,000 at 26.20. YTW SCENARIO Maturity Type : Call Maturity Date : 2010-03-14 Maturity Price : 26.00 Evaluated at bid price : 26.18 Bid-YTW : -2.36 % |
| There were 19 other index-included issues trading in excess of 10,000 shares. | |||