Puerto Rico Needs Treasury’s Help, Secretary
Lew Is Told - (www.nytimes.com) A
group of Hispanic members of Congress called on the Treasury secretary,
Jacob J. Lew, to take a more muscular role in Puerto Rico’s
debt crisis and prevent what they said could become “an economic catastrophe”
on the island. The eight lawmakers, all Democrats, said bankruptcy was the
“best hope” both for Puerto Rico and its many creditors on the United States
mainland. They urged Mr. Lew to work with Congress to move two pending
bankruptcy bills forward, and to intervene in other ways, as Treasury
secretaries did during the financial crisis of 2008. “Treasury was instrumental
to helping auto manufacturers weather tough times and stabilizing Wall Street
during the 2008 crisis,” said Nydia M. Velázquez, a New York Democrat, who wrote
the letter. “There’s no reason they can’t play a similar role here.” General
Motors and Chrysler were able to restructure their debts under Chapter 11
bankruptcy protection because the Treasury provided interim financing at a time
when no private lender could be found. The auto restructurings also were
handled by a special task force working out of the Treasury Department. Without
the Treasury’s help, many experts said at the time, G.M. in particular would
have had to liquidate, with devastating effects on jobs and the economy.
Investors haven’t been this worried about a
stock-market bubble since 2000 - (www.marketwatch.com) Investor fears that the stock market is
overvalued have hit their highest level since the dot-com bubble’s peak in
2000, and that could lead to a bear market, warns Nobel-winning economist
Robert Shiller. “It looks to me a bit like a bubble again with essentially a
tripling of stock prices since 2009 in just six years and at the same time
people losing confidence in the valuation of the market,” the Yale University
professor told the Financial Times in an story published Sunday. “When we see a correction and an increase in
the VIX, the problem is the short-run thing of when will it turn?” Shiller said
those investor fears are showing up in his valuation confidence indexes, which
are based on his surveys of investor sentiment. These indexes indicate that
worries are at their greatest level since 2000. Shiller expressed concerns
around a valuation confidence index in an interview with MarketWatch in the spring, when he noted confidence had been dropping
for the past year.
Glencore Slumps to Record Low, Erasing Gains
Since Debt Plan - (www.bloomberg.com)
Shares of Glencore Plc slumped to a record
low, erasing gains since announcing a $10 billion debt-reduction plan designed
to reassure investors amid mounting concern about the commodity trader and
miner’s borrowing load. The stock slumped as much as 7.7 percent to 118.1 pence
in London trading and was 4 percent lower at 122.75 pence by 12:38 p.m. That’s
lower than the 123.15 pence closing price of Sept. 4, the trading day prior to
Glencore’s announcement of the debt-reduction plan. The stock advanced 8.7
percent last week, its biggest weekly gain in more than three years. Glencore
plans to scrap its dividend, sell assets and is working on a share sale of
as much as $2.5 billion to help trim its borrowings. A rout in commodity prices
has eroded profits, raising concern that credit agencies may cut their rating
on Glencore’s debt.
China Braces for Second Onshore Bond Default by
State Firm - (www.bloomberg.com) China
National Erzhong Group Co. may miss an interest payment later this month after
one of its creditors filed a restructuring request, putting it at risk of
becoming the second state-owned company to default in the nation’s onshore bond
market. The smelting-equipment maker might not be able to pay a coupon that’s
due Sept. 28 on its 1 billion yuan ($157 million) of 5.65 percent 2017
notes if a local court accepts the creditor’s restructuring application before
that date, according to a statement posted on Chinamoney.com.cn. China
National Erzhong, based in China’s western Sichuan province, issued the
five-year securities in 2012 at par and the debentures are currently trading at
67.72 percent of that. Uncertainty over the payment comes as deflation risks,
overcapacity and spiraling corporate debt cloud the outlook for China’s economy,
forecast to expand at the slowest pace since 1990 this year. Baoding Tianwei
Group Co. failed to pay interest of 85.5 million yuan on one of its bonds in
April, becoming the first state-owned enterprise to default in the onshore
market.
Citic Securities Draws Beijing’s Ire After Meltdown - (online.wsj.com) But the stock market selloff prompted a ham-fisted government bailout that raised doubts globally about the Communist Party’s reputation for sound economic stewardship has put the firm’s accomplishments in a new light. The equity swaps and other trading strategies Citic Securities promoted now appear to trouble regulators who are struggling to get a grip on the stock market decline and probing the industry for signs of what they term “abnormal” trading. Within hours of convening a meeting of shareholders and his board on Aug. 25, Mr. Wang learned at least eight of his senior executives were being questioned by police investigators about what had gone wrong in Chinese markets, according to statements from Mr. Wang, the Ministry of Public Security and a report from the official Xinhua News Agency.
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