Breakingviews

Indonesia may be unfairly tarred by Bumi’s brush

By Wayne Arnold

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Bumi Resources is not a metaphor for Indonesia. The heavily indebted coal miner, currently at the centre of a financial probe and corporate governance spat, has said it may have to sell assets or shares. With coal prices weak, the drama at Bumi Resources spells more trouble for creditors and shareholders, including those of its London-listed parent. Indonesia must hope it is not unfairly tarred by the association.

Nine answers that should win the White House

By Daniel Indiviglio and Antony Currie
The authors are Reuters Breakingviews columnists. The opinions expressed are their own.

 

President Barack Obama and his Republican opponent Mitt Romney finally face off in their first presidential debate on Wednesday evening. With domestic policy as the theme, the two are likely to be challenged to outline their policies for fixing the economy. Breakingviews concocts the nine answers we’d like to hear – ones that could win either candidate the White House in November.

Scardino exit reignites FT sale speculation

By Hugo Dixon

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Marjorie Scardino once famously said she would sell the Financial Times “over my dead body”. Her exit as chief executive of Pearson after 16 years in charge will reignite speculation that the pink paper might be up for grabs. Scardino’s successor, John Fallon, has been at the group for 15 years, and Chairman Glen Moreno is also fond of the FT. So this is no revolution. Still, post-Scardino, Pearson will be less attached to the barely profitable newspaper.

Bankers should be made to eat their own stew

By Hugo Dixon
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Bankers should eat their own stew at bonus time. The European Union’s Liikanen review says managers should receive part of their compensation in the form of their own banks’ “bail-in” bonds. Since such debt would plummet if the bank needed a rescue, it would make bosses more alive to the risks their institutions are running.

Maybe Jamie Dimon wasn’t so clever with Bear

By Antony Currie

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Maybe Jamie Dimon wasn’t so clever with Bear Stearns after all. Back in March 2008, the JPMorgan chief executive looked pretty shrewd picking up the collapsed investment bank on the cheap, even after raising his offer five-fold to $10 a share. Dimon stuffed the Federal Reserve Bank of New York with $29 billion of Bear’s worst-looking mortgage assets. Not only did those securities wind up making money, but a new lawsuit filed by New York’s top lawman shows that JPMorgan didn’t cover all its bases.

Pandora’s income stream on congressional playlist

By Daniel Indiviglio
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Pandora’s income potential could soon be set loose. New U.S. legislation proposes to recalibrate how music royalty payments are made for online radio companies. Such costs lock up about half of Pandora’s revenue. A new Breakingviews calculator shows just how much value could be released by reducing them.

Spain adds bank stress tests to saga of missteps

By George Hay

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Spain is doing its Don Quixote impression again. The troubled euro state’s latest attempt at shoring up trust in its imploding banking system was supposed to be the final one. Madrid was expected to pump enough capital in its lenders to lay concerns to rest. But the rosy assumptions chosen by the government are still too close to Cervantes’ ever-dreaming literary character.

Review: The real way HBOS gave us extra

By George Hay
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Anyone watching British TV in 2002 will probably remember Howard from the Sheldon branch. The bald, bespectacled bank teller at a new bank called HBOS tried to attract deposits by singing clumsily adapted pop songs. The nadir of this allegedly amusing commercial effort was undoubtedly “Who gives you extra?”, a parody of the Baha Men’s “Who let the dogs out?”. Like Howard, who rapidly became a star, HBOS was trying to be something it was not.
“Hubris: How HBOS Wrecked the Best Bank in Britain”, Ray Perman’s timely guide to the bank’s spectacular 2008 demise, gives a comprehensive insight into what HBOS “extra” ended up being: an extremely unamusing forced takeover, and an 11.5 billion pound state recapitalisation.

Apple’s Maps snafu nothing new – just bigger

By Richard Beales
The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook has apologized for leaving customers frustrated – and lost. The problem is a new mapping application, rife with both errors and omissions. Launch problems aren’t new. Steve Jobs flubbed pricing of the original iPhone, went too early with a flawed MobileMe cloud service, and had to deal with the iPhone 4’s imperfect antenna. But Apple’s increased size and rising competition make avoiding slip-ups increasingly important.

UK blazes the right trail on Libor reform

By George Hay

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are his own.

Martin Wheatley’s Libor reforms strike the right balance. Given the tidal wave of public anger in June when Barclays was shown to have attempted to fiddle the critical benchmark interest rate, the UK regulator could have recommended the London Interbank Offered Rate be scrapped entirely. His actual approach – reform rather than revolution – makes more sense.