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One of the most audacious punts in the market has been the bet by holders of junior preferred shareholdings in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that the liquidation of the agencies in their current form will translate into a payday for junior creditors. Junior preferred stock outstanding in the two entities totalled $33 billion in March this year, but there have been no dividend payments since the two government-sponsored enterprises were put into conservatorship in 2008. The preferred stock nevertheless jumped from a low of $1.50 (par value $25) to more than $6.50 in May this year in anticipation of GSE reform gaining traction.

As Detroit files for Chapter 9 bankruptcy, municipalities need to look at ways to increase revenues. The battle to create and attract jobs is on.

Policymakers continue to lavish liquidity on the western world. It will be a long time before short-term money-market rates normalize in the US, the UK, Germany or Australia.

The Federal Reserve’s surprise decision not to taper its asset purchases has boosted EM currencies, but the knock to the central bank’s credibility might imply that a more violent market reaction has been stored up for the eventual normalization of US monetary policy.

Euromoney magazine’s ninth annual Real Estate Survey canvassed the opinions of real estate advisers, developers, investment managers, corporate end-users and banks worldwide. We asked respondents which firms they thought were the best providers of real estate products and services in their market over the past 12 months. The survey was filled in at country level and had two distinct components: Part A (performance figures) and Part B (nominations).

In 1989, Tangipahoa parish in Louisiana found itself $8 million in debt for roads that had never been completed.

In Brownsville, southwest Texas, on the border with Mexico, unemployment is 11.1%. The city has a workforce of 160,000 but 40% do not have a high-school diploma.

The Czech crown weakened this week after Miroslav Singer, the head of the country’s central bank (CNB), revealed in an interview with Euromoney his controversial support for intervention in the FX market to avoid Japanese-style deflation, in the teeth of resistance from some CNB board members.

The emerging market sell-off since May is just the start of a painful multi-year adjustment process – and China has blazed a trail for the next downturn. Capital abundance, deflationary pressures and imbalanced global demand continue to drive the 15-year cycle of credit booms and busts.

Ackermann has experienced the chill of unwelcome publicity in recent days but how, I wonder, does Jamie Dimon feel when every day seems to bring another cloud, if not a hailstorm? I have written recently about how Jamie’s halo has become tarnished.

Institutions and private equity have stepped into the gap left by banks, not least because of property’s attractive and duration-matching returns.