Gilt trip

29 September 2022Economics, Risk Commentarygilts, pension funds, sovereign debt, United KingdomNick Dunbar

How a populist fiscal experiment brought market mayhem and ended bond investors’ patience – at the worst possible time

Italian derivatives opera

10 February 2021Articlesinterest rate swaps, litigation, sovereign debt, swaptionsNick Dunbar

Italian courts are prosecuting former officials involved in derivatives terminated by Morgan Stanley nine years ago. But the US bank actually did Italy a favour, unlike the country’s other sovereign counterparties.

Déjà Vu All Over Again

8 August 2011Articlescentral banking, eurozone, sovereign debtNick Dunbar

Are we on the verge of another Lehman weekend? The crisis of September 2008 unfolded in several stages: 1) a long bubble in subprime and credit markets in general, in which Lehman and other banks profited from by increasing their balance sheet leverage, 2) following a realisation that subprime was a haven of fraudulent lending,…