The BoE on Britain's productivity puzzle: It seems that the BoE is as confused as everyone else when it comes to Britain's productivity puzzle, though in some sense agrees that companies may be hoarding labour to hedge for future uncertainty - because the alternative, investing in plant capacity, would be too much of a commitment. Izzy's post has more. The BoJ eased: Izzy and Kate pointed out that the Bank of Japan's new piece of stimulus might have more to do with Japan's failure to pass its annual current deficit financing bill due to obstruction by opposition parties - that means the JGB supply pump has been shut down, at least temporarily and the BoJ had no choice but to announce more asset purchases so as to compensate for the future fall in government spending. While we also pointed out that although the yen may not have cared too much about the BoJ's stimulus there is still the possibility of MoF intervention to consider. Faust and the German aversion to debt: Weidmann went classical and allowed Kate to explore how Goethe's tragedy has shaped the German attitude to inflation. "A man sees in the world what he carries in his heart," doesn't seem like an inappropriate quote. Slumping trade growth - and more oil Jedi mind tricks? Kate wondered if Saudi Arabia is having to again resort to Jedi mind tricks? And asked: does the central bank of oil still have such a big problem with its policy transmission mechanism that it can't weaken prices by production alone - and what effect is this having on world trade? Bank of Japan extends asset purchase programme: The Bank announced it would be taking its purchases to ¥80tn ($1.01tn) from ¥70tn as it tries to tackle entrenched deflation, a strong yen and the impact of slowing global growth. FedEx warns on China: The head of FedEx has sounded a warning about the fate of China's export-driven economy, after cutting the company's forecast for global growth in 2012 and 2013. According to Fred Smith, some China observers "completely underestimate" the impact of slowing exports despite the country's domestic stimulus efforts. BP has held talks to sell its Texas City refinery to Marathon Petroleum: People familiar with the matter said it was the latest stage of a big asset disposal plan to cover the costs of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. Blackstone has agreed to buy a controlling stake in Vivint: The deal for the home security provider is said to be valued at more than $2bn, including debt. Reuters, New York Times Yahoo to return $3bn to shareholders: Yahoo will return to shareholders most of the $4.3bn in net proceeds from selling half of its stake in China's Alibaba Group despite new chief executive Marissa Mayer's suggestion in July that she might keep the cash for acquisitions. Markets: Stocks, commodities and growth-sensitive currencies were firm after the Bank of Japan became the latest central bank to pledge a monetary boost to tackle weak economic activity, the FT's Global markets overview reports. The FTSE All-World equity index was up 0.3 per cent as the Asia-Pacific region bounced 0.6 per cent. Europe's FTSE Eurofirst 300 was up 0.4 per cent and S&P 500 futures suggested Wall Street would add 0.4 per cent, taking the US benchmark to within a couple of points of a fresh four-year high. This entry was posted by Izabella Kaminska on Wednesday, September 19th, 2012 at 10:39 and is filed under Uncategorised.