Top Interest Rate Headlines 03-30-11: Hoenig Blames Fed for Higher Commodity Prices, Urges Tightening

Hoenig Blames Fed for Higher Commodity Prices, Urges Tightening
By Vivien Lou Chen, Bloomberg BusinessWeek
The Federal Reserve’s “highly accommodative” monetary policy is partly to blame for rapidly increasing global commodity prices, said Kansas City Fed President Thomas Hoenig, who called on colleagues to raise the benchmark interest rate toward 1 percent soon.
http://jlne.ws/gTDX3x

Euro Area Monetary And Financial Statistics 2011
This data quality report is a contribution to the ECB’s Statistics Quality Framework.1 Euro area monetary and financial statistics (MFS) have been published with a high level of quality for more than a decade.
http://jlne.ws/igYWzG

Hedge fund returns won't save public pensions
Posted by Katie Benner. CNNMoney/Fortune
State pension funds are putting more of their money into higher risk investments like hedge funds, private equity, real estate, and commodities. But it won't fix their problems.
http://jlne.ws/fg0Y88

UK a risk to worldwide financial stability
Will Henley, GFS News
The UK is a threat to worldwide financial stability due to its hostility to short selling curbs and inaction on tax havens, according to a new study
http://jlne.ws/gxGMcR

Dallas Fed releases exchange rate indexes for all 50 states
Dallas Fed
Real Trade-Weighted Value of the Dollar: In the fourth quarter 2010 issue of Southwest Economy, Dallas Fed researchers introduced new measures of real trade-weighted exchange rates for each of the 50 U.S. states. These indexes calculate the inflation-adjusted value of the U.S. dollar against the currencies of countries with which the state trades. The real exchange rates are aggregated across countries for each state using the average export share to the country over the period from 1997 to 2009. The indexes should allow analysts to more precisely identify the exchange rate movements that most affect demand for a state’s exports.
http://ow.ly/4pz7L

IMF queries derivatives reform effectiveness
By Aline van Duyn, Financial Times
New regulations aiming to reform the vast derivatives markets may fail to remove systemic risks or prevent the need for another taxpayer bail-out of the financial system, according to a research paper published by the International Monetary Fund. The reforms, which shift derivatives to clearing houses in an effort to dilute the impact of a default of a large dealer, could result in more risks for the financial system and alternative policies such as a tax on banks’ derivatives liabilities should be considered, the IMF paper said.
http://jlne.ws/gZSmYV

HSBC chairman calls for ‘systemic’ list of banks
By Sharlene Goff and Patrick Jenkins, Financial Times
Regulators should include more than 80 banks in their list of global financial institutions of systemic importance that need tighter regulation and higher capital requirements, Douglas Flint, chairman of HSBC, has urged.
http://jlne.ws/hmUQiL

Bond dealers sceptical about eurozone plans
By David Oakley, Financial Times
It will not happen for more than two years. But moves to create an orderly process for eurozone sovereign defaults are already threatening a total shutdown of the peripheral bond markets.
http://jlne.ws/gmauaa

FDIC Proposes Rule to Tie Banks to Mortgage Risk
By BEN PROTESS, NY Times
Federal regulators, seeking to outlaw a leading cause of the financial crisis, voted on Tuesday to propose new rules that would prohibit Wall Street banks from selling packages of risky mortgages to investors without holding onto a stake in the loans.
http://jlne.ws/gHEOFi

ISDA: OTC Derivatives Market Is $401 Tln, Not $583 Tln Per BIS
By Katy Burne, DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
The International Swaps and Derivatives Association said Tuesday that the true size of the global over-the-counter derivatives market is closer to $401 trillion, not the $583 trillion estimate given by the Bank for International Settlements late last year.
http://jlne.ws/fcsIE8

Banks Saved $25 Billion By Under-Serving Delinquent Mortgages
Forbes
The consumer protection agency developed by the Obama administration in the aftermath of the financial crisis is already stirring Wall Street's pot.
http://jlne.ws/fIRNwz

UBS names new European research chief
eFinancial News
UBS has appointed a highly-ranked building and construction analyst to lead its research division in Europe, following the promotion of former head Nick Pink to run equities earlier this month.
http://jlne.ws/dRaIn8

RBS chief warns against over-regulation
Independent
Royal Bank of Scotland's chief executive, Stephen Hester, has warned that over-regulation threatens his bank's recovery.
http://jlne.ws/hTxxAb

Few Lehman creditors want court to consider their restructuring
Reuters
Few creditors of Lehman Brothers Holdings want the court to consider their alternate restructuring plan when the bankrupt investment bank's own proposal comes up for voting in June, court documents show.
http://jlne.ws/gFVu27

Australian Central Bank Adds Twitter to Armory
By Geoffrey Rogow, WSJ
The Reserve Bank of Australia on Wednesday added Twitter to its armory of communications as the surging Australian dollar and resources boom put more global focus on the machinations of the Pacific nation’s central bank.
http://jlne.ws/esW6n6