Good morning New York, Iran's new rial-ity: Iran's rial is diving hard as the spectre of hyperinflation appears. We take a look at Gresham and Giffen at work in a very disturbing episode. Hedge fund repo-sailors: Yes, this is happening - "An Argentine naval vessel crewed by more than 200 sailors has been seized in Ghana as part of an attempt by the US hedge fund Elliott Capital Management to collect on bonds on which Buenos Aires defaulted in 2001." Kate's post has more. The case against idea monopolisation: Izzy runs through a gripping new paper from Michele Boldrin and David Levine at the St. Louis Fed which argues there are strong economic grounds to abolish patents, because "there is no empirical evidence that they serve to increase innovation and productivity, unless the latter is identified with the number of patents awarded- which, as evidence shows, has no correlation with measured productivity." Les pigeons of innovation: Masa takes a look at a group of French businessmen who have just named themselves "les pigeons..." as you do. The bird stands for "a sucker" or "a dupe" in French slang. Romney leads presidential debate: Mitt Romney was widely viewed as more successful in the first US presidential debate of this campaign, in which he focused on weak growth and high unemployment. Many observers were confused by why Obama failed to mention Romney's "47 per cent" gaff. Romney's chances of being elected president rose to 32 per cent from 25 per cent on Intrade after the debate. (FT live blog) (The Atlantic live blog) (Reuters). Russia's petrodollar surplus will be over by 2015, as import revenues overtake those from oil exports, according to its central bank. The forecast represents the first official acknowledgment that the economic model which has come to characterise the era ofVladimir Putin's leadership - a country buttressed by oil money - is ending. Markets were sporting an optimistic hue as investors became emboldened by signs of improvement in the US economy, evidence that was serving to counteract recent disappointing data from Asia and Europe. Moves were mild, however, with traders perhaps reluctant to take bold positions ahead of a busy few days containing much central bank activity and a crucial US jobs report, and as uncertainty continued about whether Spain would ask for EU assistance. The US dollar index, usually a handy inverse gauge of investor risk appetite, was down 0.2 per cent, helping gold add $11 to $1,788 an ounce. Yields on 10-year Treasuries were up 2 basis points to 1.63 per cent as investors eschewed perceived "safety." The FTSE All-World equity index was up 0.2 per cent, as the FTSE Eurofirst 300 saw a gain of 0.2 per cent and after the Asia-Pacific region rose 0.6 per cent. This entry was posted by FT Alphaville on Thursday, October 4th, 2012 at 10:46 and is filed under Uncategorised.