Jim Leaviss

 



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1
The lesser-spotted five pound note, and some other stuff
The Bank of England is trying to boost the number of £5 notes in circulation - their chief cashier Andrew Bailey (whose signature is on every new banknote) said "our evidence suggests that the public wants more £5 notes". The general ... 		09-Mar-2010
2
Sovereign CDS Q&A
The market in sovereign credit default swaps has sprung to life over the past year as worries about the health of nations, rather than corporates, have multiplied. Problems in Dubai in December, and Greece right now, on top of a general deterioration of ... 		25-Feb-2010
3
What is the risk free rate anyway?
The risk free rate is a concept beloved of micro-economists and bond math geeks. It's the building block of Modern Portfolio Theory and an input into option pricing models. It's supposed to represent the interest rate available in the market that is ... 		25-Feb-2010
4
What happened the last time the UK defaulted?
Britain has run debt to income ratios way in excess of current levels at several points in its history. Around the times of the Napoleonic War, and both the First and Second World Wars the debt to income level exceeded 200% - levels that today would be ... 		02-Feb-2010
5
The big story for 2010: sovereign debt worries?
Happy New Year. Over the past couple of weeks, the cost of buying protection to insure against a default by the UK government has risen to exceed the cost of insuring a basket of European investment grade companies. The chart shows that 5 year Credit ... 		06-Jan-2010
6
The Bond Vigilantes Christmas Quiz - the answers and the winners
Thank you for all the entries - we had twice as many as last year's bumper haul, and the average mark is creeping up too. The answers are shown below. Here are the winners - there's an extra runners-up prize so everybody who scored 18 or better gets ... 		21-Dec-2009
7
British Airways, strikes, and a final Christmas competition reminder
As BA goes to court to try to stop the 12 Days of Christmas strike by its UNITE cabin crew members, I dug out the paper mentioned in the Times yesterday about the impact of striking on workers' pay. The paper is called Do strikes pay? by Metcalf, ... 		16-Dec-2009
8
Doom for UK retailers in 2010? VAT hike implies collapse in retail sales.
In under a month's time, the UK's emergency VAT reduction from 17.5% to 15% will be reversed. This will not only cause a blip upwards in inflation rates (most of the CPI basket apart from food attracts the tax) but might also derail the recovery of the UK ... 		09-Dec-2009
9
The Bond Vigilantes Christmas Quiz
Here is this year's Christmas Quiz. Please email us your entries by 5pm on Friday 18 December. First prize is £100 of Amazon vouchers and there are 4 copies of "Too Big To Fail" by Andrew Ross Sorkin (in which Hank Paulson accuses Alistair ... 		08-Dec-2009
10
Movember - please help us raise lots of money for the Prostate Cancer Charity
The M&G Bond Vigilantes are growing some very fine moustaches in aid of the Prostate Cancer Charity. We're less than two weeks into Movember and already the bond desk looks like the Hulk Hogan Appreciation Society crossed with the Village People. ... 		10-Nov-2009