Ben Lord

 



Recent Blog Entries RSS feed
1
A Bond Vigilante visits the Bank of International Settlements - Video update
Anyone who has had a flight delayed or cancelled as a result of the volcano in Iceland will know how frustrating it can be. For someone in that position, there isn’t much that can be done about it. Ben Lord, Fund Manager of the M&G High Interest ... 		02-Jun-2010
2
Dear George...
Mervyn King introduced himself to George Osborne last night by writing him a letter, not to wish him luck in his new and frankly unenviable role, nor to advise him on just how much austerity is needed on 22nd June to keep the markets supportive of gilts, ... 		18-May-2010
3
UK money supply shrinks by most ever - QuitE a Dilemma
Today we have seen the preliminary release of M4 money supply (so-called ' broad money'), and it could potentially be a very important piece of economic data. December saw a 1.1% drop in the money supply, the largest monthly fall since records began in ... 		21-Jan-2010
4
The New Era for Bank Bonds: Send In The Clowns?
The following is a long piece, but we feel it has potentially dramatic implications for the bank bond market. Last week saw the much anticipated capital raisings from Lloyds-HBOS and RBS. Lloyds has managed to raise £13.5 billion in new shares with ... 		12-Nov-2009
5
The UK Residential Mortgage Backed Security market reopens
It's been quite some time since we have seen a new public issue in the UK RMBS market. In fact, it's probably been closed for new deals since the beginning of the crisis. As property prices plummeted, and as everyone fled risk assets for cash and gilts, ... 		29-Sep-2009
6
Does deflation always result in a low and flat yield curve?
We've had a huge rally in risky assets since we wrote a comment about Turning Japanese almost a year ago, and while diminished, the risk of a 'lost decade' is still very real. I thought it would be worth another look. Now I am not out to compare and ... 		25-Sep-2009
7
UK housing : firm foundations, or a rally built on sand?
Recent data releases in the UK have been interpreted as suggesting that the housing market may be showing signs of some form of recovery. Our interpretation, though, would be that the releases suggest merely that the pace of decline is slowing. On top of ... 		30-Jun-2009
8
Monetary Forbearance, and the threat of a double dip financial crisis
With first quarter results out of Wells Fargo, JP Morgan and Citigroup this week in the US, and Barclays over here, you might be forgiven for starting to think that the financial crisis is well along the bumpy transition to the next phase, ie a global ... 		17-Apr-2009
9
Frankly A Step Backwards (for the US)?
Yesterday the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) has voted to 'relax' fair-value or mark-to-market accounting rules. This is, in our view, a big step in the wrong direction. We believe that it has done this under huge pressure from politicians, ... 		03-Apr-2009
10
Equitisation of bank capital bonds
Over the past week or so we have seen an interesting development in bank bonds as around a dozen institutions across the UK and Europe have announced that they are tendering for their subordinated debt. Essentially this means they are offering to buy ... 		30-Mar-2009