How Significant is the BRICS New Development Bank?

"The argument that the creation of the BRICS Bank could make a significant difference to the global financial architecture should not be pushed too far. In the final analysis development banks are instruments of state capitalist development. Such specialised institutions are needed because of the shortfalls in the availability of long-term finance for capital-intensive projects in market economies, resulting from the maturity and liquidity mismatches involved. Resources mobilised are from those wanting shorter maturities and greater liquidity, and sums lent are to projects that are large and illiquid with long gestations lags and long-term profit profiles."

"Whether even this difference would be material depends on three factors. The first is the degree to which the emergence of the NDB alters the global financial architecture and perhaps, therefore, the behaviour of the institutions currently populating it. The second is the degree to which the BRICS bank can differ in its lending practices from the institutions that currently dominate the global development-banking infrastructure. And, the third is the degree to which a development bank set up as a tool of state-guided development by governments in countries pursuing capitalist and even neoliberal development trajectories can indeed contribute to furthering goals of more equitable and sustainable development."

http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2014/08/significant-brics-new-development-bank.html

Europejski Enron 2.0

"Na początku lipca specjalizująca się w krótkiej sprzedaży i audycie śledczym firma inwestycyjna Gotham City Research opublikowała raport analityczny, w którym stwierdziła, że spółka Let’s Gowex (GWO) jest finansowym oszustwem fabrykującym nawet 90% swoich przychodów i ustaliła cenę docelową spółki na poziomie 0."

"Historia Let’s Gowex i jej charyzmatycznego założyciela i prezesa dostarcza wielu cennych lekcji o rynku akcyjnym. W niniejszym tekście skupię się na tym co zrobił GCR i co robią podobne firmy inwestycyjne. Od czasu do czasu na Blogi Bossa wraca dyskusja o przewadze rynkowej – czym jest i skąd inwestor ma wiedzieć, że ją posiada. Wydaje się mi, że inwestorzy potrafiący stwierdzić, że spółka, o której rynek nie ma zielonego pojęcia, że jest oszustwem, jest jednym wielkim szwindlem, mogą się pochwalić autentyczną przewagę. Inwestorzy z detektywistycznym zacięciem i znajomością rachunkowości mogą spróbować swoich sił w audycie śledczym. "

http://blogi.bossa.pl/2014/08/20/europejski-enron-2-0/

How Much Do Hurricanes Hurt the Economy?

"For years economists have debated whether destructive storms are even bad for a country's economy. To a non-economist, the ill effects of a storm might seem intuitive, but economists have a knack for finding plausible counterintuitive explanations."

"Hsiang and Jina looked at 6,712 cyclones, typhoons, and hurricanes observed from 1950 to 2008 and the economic fortunes of the countries they struck in the years that followed. With their data, Jina and Hsiang can decisively say: These storms are bad—very bad—for economic growth."

"The effects are lasting: Overall, they find that "each additional meter per second of annual nationally-averaged wind exposure lowers per capita economic output 0.37 percent 20 years later" (emphasis added). Put simply, economies "do not recover in the long run." 

So what does this mean for a planet with a changing climate?"

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2014/08/how-much-do-hurricanes-hurt-the-economy/375594/

Buffett Waits on Fat Pitch as Cash Hoard Tops $50 Billion

"Warren Buffett has never had so much money to spend.

Cash at his Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A) rose past $50 billion at the end of June, the first time it finished a quarter above that level since he became chairman and chief executive officer more than four decades ago."

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2014-08-04/buffett-waits-on-fat-pitch-as-cash-hoard-tops-50-billion.html

How to rip off a bank, Espirito Santo style

"I have been going through Banco Espírito Santo's half-year 2014 results. They make pretty grim reading. No, actually it's worse than that. They read like an instruction manual on how to rip off a bank.

I can't work out if the BES management at the time was stupid, naïve, complacent or criminal. Probably all four. No matter – it has now been entirely replaced. Well, I say “no matter” - but actually such abysmal management DOES matter. Those responsible for audit, risk and compliance have been guilty of incompetence so gross it borders on the criminal. And the former CEO and vice-chairman, Ricardo Espírito Santo Salgardo – a member of the Espírito Santo family – has been arrested on suspicion of money laundering and tax evasion. But I suspect he has done more than that: he was also chairman of ESFG, which – as will become apparent shortly – systematically drained the bank and its other subsidiaries. If he didn't know what was going on, he was incompetent: if he did, then he was a party to corruption and fraud on a simply massive scale. Exactly how massive is not yet clear. But I think we are talking billions of Euros."

http://www.pieria.co.uk/articles/how_to_rip_off_a_bank_esprito_santo_style