Varia - things that I find interesting

- Traditionally, we've been taught that in Finance risk equals volatility (standard deviation). Have a look at the recent letter to investors from Howard Marks to have a slightly different view.

- Yesterday, the ECB more than satisfied market expectations by announcing a 10bp cut in all official rates (refi rate @ 0.05%, depo rate @ -0.20%, marginal lending rate @ 0.30% - now officially at their lower bound, so no further rate cuts will be delivered) and the introduction of two asset purchase programmes starting in October: the ABSPP (aimed at buying simple ABSs with underlying assets consisting of claims against the Euro area non-financial private sector) and the CBPP3 (designed to purchase euro-denominated covered bonds issued by EUR MFIs). We will comment on the implications of these decisions in the next class.