"If the shoe was on the other foot, if these were sovereign wealth investors in France, Germany, the UK or the US earning fabulous returns, reducing national deficits, funding social security costs and investing into the rest of the world, would they think it was an issue? I suspect not"
Simon Israel, executive director of Temasek, takes critics of the sovereign wealth funds head on (see The new rulers of finance and the Temasek interview)
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"Even when the market was functioning we could see that these were very poor quality assets – a deal that is a pig at par is still a pig at 96" Ian Cash, managing director at Alchemy Special Opportunities Fund, on why the distressed debt market is only for the brave (see Leveraged finance: Funds go hungry as distressed trough fails to fill)
"Rating agencies are exempt from regulation FD (fair disclosure). This means that they can receive confidential information not available to other market participants. This is kind of like a confessional where the priest delivers a public opinion on the extent of your virtues or sins – and your spouse has to guess what a triple-A or triple-B means about your fidelity"
David Einhorn, founder and CEO of Greenlight Capital, gives another sermon on the sinning ratings agencies
"In Spain, we go after your children"
José Antonio Trujillo del Vale, chairman and CEO of InterMoney Titulización, explains at the Euromoney Spanish Capital Markets Forum in Madrid why default rates on Spanish mortgages are so low