FTAlphavilleFT Alphaville is a 2008 Webby Award Winner

Say what you will about Andrew Lahde, but the man knows how to write a letter.

Last month, the famed-for-betting-against-subprime hedge fund manager shuttered his operations, citing unacceptable levels of counterparty risk. More…

On FT Alphaville this week,

- The VW fruit machine.

- Reading the Baltic Dry.

- My kingdom for some Tier 1 capital.

- Libor-OIS: an inefficient truth.

- Fleeing Iceland. And Hungary. And Pakistan. More…

The first ever Constant Proportion Debt Obligations (AKA: AAA superbonds, holy grails of structured finance, hydras, unsinkable instruments) have hit their cash-out triggers.

ABN’s SURF CPDO bonds died painfully in their sleep earlier this week. More…

Switzerland’s moves to inject SFr6bn of capital into UBS while Credit Suisse looks to raise more than SFr10bn from other investors were greeted with glee by investors in the banks’ credit derivatives on Friday morning. More…

Consider Iceland. Or Pakistan. Or Hungary. Or Ukraine. Or South Korea.

Investors are pulling money out of emerging market bond and equity funds, and it’s not hard to see why.

Funds dedicated to emerging markets endured one of their worst weeks on record in terms of outflows, More…

On FT Alphaville this morning,

- The VW fruit machine, redux.

- A kingdom for some Tier 1.

- “Literally trillions is being provided in liquidity and the Libor-OIS spread has moved a measly 26.17 basis points.” More…

From the BBA:

LIBOR OVERNIGHT STERLING RATES FIX AT 4.68750% VS 5.17500%

LIBOR OVERNIGHT DOLLAR RATES FIX AT 1.66875% VS 1.93750% 

LIBOR OVERNIGHT EURO RATES FIX AT 3.66125% VS 3.75000% More…

From Bloomberg, the Libor-OIS spread:

The tiny move down over the past few days is in spite of an absolutely unprecedented splurge from the world’s central banks.

Alea picks up the latest numbers from the Fed: More…

Markets live chat transcript for the chat ending at 13:11 on 17 Oct 2008. Participants in this chat were: Paul Murphy (PM) Neil Hume (NH) Robert Wright (RW) Stacy-Marie Ishmael (SMI) Alida Smith (AA)
PM: More…

The conspiracy theorists can add another one to their list - gold prices are plunging. But the fall in prices has a much simpler explanation – albeit, we have to admit, one much less James Bond-esque – that central banks selling or lending gold to cash-strapped commercial banks. More…

There’s a special guest on FT Alphaville’s daily markets chat on Friday - Robert Wright, the FT’s transport correspondent, has promised to educate us all on the ups and down of the Baltic Dry.

This key shipping index has been through the roof and through the floor - leading to an outbreak of generally mis-informed speculation on what it all means for the world economy. More…

This is his own book, to be clear - Warren Buffett’s personal investment portfolio, rather than his Berkshire Hathaway holdings, which are pledged to charity.

The Sage of Omaha has taken to the op-ed pages of the New York Times to explain why his portfolio will pretty soon consist purely of US stocks, More…

The Irish government no doubt feels vindicated, having moved first in Europe to provide overt protection for its banks.

The blanket guarantee for depositors caused howls of protest from other European countries at the time - but given the subsequent regulatory scramble, More…

Yesterday we saw UBS and Credit Suisse use government bailouts to help raise their Tier 1 capital, banks’ stress-test safety cushion, to 11.5 per cent and 13.7 per cent respectively. UK banks, with at least £37bn of HM Treasury money behind them, More…

It’s hard to remember while watching the plummeting Baltic Dry Index of  ship charter rates how recently people were convinced it would stay high for months. The index, which hit an all-time record 11,793 points on May 20, More…

We like an analyst that takes a view. We like it even more when they put their proverbials on the line - in their first week in a new job.

So we should applaud Max Warburton, who has popped up at Sanford Bernstein and instantly provided a hair-raising explanation for the extraordinary rise in Volkswagen stock over recent months. More…

Score one for the Telegraph: Chinese aluminium giant Chinalco has “indefinitely suspended” a corporate bond sale worth £250m this week because it needed to clarify rumours that could affect investors’ behaviour. More…

Comment and analysis from Friday’s FT:

Lex on hedge funds
It is open season on the hedgies. The Italian Treasury minister calls for their systematic extermination. Bans on shorting have wrecked strategies that depend on hedging, More…

Elsewhere on Friday,

- Why Lehman mattered

- Our current economic crisis is not like the one we faced in the 1930s. It’s almost its photographic negative.

- Should one be ashamed of being an investment banker?

- Oh, More…

The latest on Friday,

- Kazakhmys: “discussions regarding a possible combination with a third party, first announced on July 14 2008, have ended” - statement.

- WPP to acquire 33% stake in South African marketing group Smollan - statement. More…

Asian stocks rose Friday after extreme volatility in the US and European markets culminated in a late surge in US stocks while European markets finished lower. Poor US data unnerved investors, including figures showing US industrial production plummeted 2.8% in September, More…

The global credit crisis took a fresh turn on Thursday as Hungary and Ukraine approached international institutions for support in an effort to avoid following Iceland into financial turmoil. The mood in Europe was unsettled as Budapest received a €5bn credit facility from the ECB and Kiev said it was seeking an IMF loan of up to $14bn to “stabilise Ukraine’s financial system”. More…

Switzerland moved to restore confidence in its banking system on Thursday, agreeing to fund a vehicle that would take on most of the toxic debts held by UBS and injecting SFr6bn (€3.9bn) to help recapitalise its former national banking champion. More…

The longer governments take to bail out their banks, the more finely tuned their plans become, says Lex. Switzerland’s rescue of UBS from its morass of dud assets does two things efficiently: it cauterises the bleeding from UBS’s ragbag of subprime and real estate assets. More…

Citigroup and Merrill Lynch on Thursday revealed a total of $8bn in Q3 losses. Citi reported a net loss of $2.8bn, or 60 cents per share, stemming largely from weakness in the US economy and declining performance in the bank’s credit card division. More…

Citigroup intends to take advantage of turbulent financial market conditions to seek out acquisitions, according to Gary Crittenden, chief financial officer. The plan stands despite Citi’s recent unsuccessful bid to acquire Wachovia. More…

South Korea’s currency on Thursday suffered its worst one-day plunge for a decade, prompting growing fears that the country might become Asia’s first victim of the global financial crisis.
As the won was sliding by 9.7%, More…

Financial institutions ran to their lender of last resort for record amounts of cash in the latest week, under extreme pressure from the global financial crisis, Federal Reserve data showed Thursday, reports Reuters. More…

Ambac Financial Group and other US bond insurers are working on a plan to submit to the US Treasury that would enable them to sell troubled assets to the government, said Ambac’s CEO Michael Callen, reports Bloomberg. More…

Troubles mounted for some of the world’s biggest hedge funds on Thursday as Highland Capital Management told investors it was shutting down two of its funds and details emerged of big losses at TPG-Axon. More…