Monday, February 1, 2010

How can we make money under the new financial regulations?

Find assets in lower valued uses, and move them to higher valued uses.  For example, in the 1970's banks figured out that eurodollars (dollar denominated deposits in Europe banks not subject to US regulation) could avoid US price ceilings on interest. 
 ... With rates held below their natural level, American savers ... looked abroad. As dollars accumulated outside America, the Euromarket, where lenders and borrowers were free to set rates between them, developed in London. ... The devisers of Regulation Q did not intend to boost the money-market fund industry or to prop up London as a global financial centre but that is the effect they had.
Similarly, Hedge funds and private equity funds wre both the unintended consequence of regulation:
Hedge funds owe their appeal to their ability to go short, and thus make money even in falling markets. That marks them out from mutual funds, which are not allowed to short. And private equity would find it much more difficult to function without the rule that allows interest to be tax-deductible. 
So what might be the conseuences of President Obama's proposed financial regulation?
The main impact will be on proprietary trading, the desks that attempt to profit from market movements with the bank’s own money. If more of these desks are shut down, the markets will become less liquid. That will mean wider spreads and higher dealing costs for other investors, though that may be a price worth paying for safer banks. It is more likely, however, that the prop traders will move to hedge funds. The big hedge funds will get bigger and will have more impact on the markets. The unregulated part of the finance sector will become more important systemically, something the authorities may regret when the next crisis comes along.

1 comment:

  1. OBAMA is in a MOVIE about hedgies. He is featured in a movie-- about greedy hedge funds called "Stock Shock." Even though the movie mostly focuses on Sirius XM stock being naked short sold to hell (5 cents/share), I liked it because it exposes the dark side of Wall Street. DVD is everywhere but cheaper at www.stockshockmovie.com

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