A recent court decision involving JPMorgan and Mexican cable operator Empresas Cablevision sent another blow to the securitization market, and especially to collateralized loan obligations (CLOs), but gave more of a say to borrowers when lenders want to pass on their loans to others. It could have a broad-reaching impact on structured financings.

At the end of July, the US District Court for the Southern District of New York invalidated a participation granted by JPMorgan to another bank in a loan from JPMorgan to Cablevision. The terms of the loan allowed participations, but the court recharacterized the participation as an assignment-which required the borrower's consent.

New studies have come out showing that banks in the US, EU, Japan and Great Britain (collectively the G4), are easing up on the terms they are demanding for new loans. Surveys conducted in March by the Bank of England and Bank of Japan and in April by the Fed and the European Central Bank have found that while pricing is still expensive for new loans, the terms and covenants of those loans are beginning to ease.

"For a second quarter in a row, G-4 banks eased terms and standards on loans to large and small companies, while they have stopped tightening terms on loans for home purchases," write JP Morgan analysts in a recent research note.

JPMorgan today came out with research predicting a wave of global rate hikes in the next three months. So far only five countries have started to raise rates: Australia, Norway, India, Israel and Malaysia. JPMorgan predicts that number to rise to 14 over the next trimester.

"For a broad range of emerging market and commodity-producing nations, momentum is shifting decisively toward normalizing policy," writes the bank in today's note. The two biggest countries likely to raise rates are Canada and Brazil; Canada due to the improving economic sentiment in the US and Brazil due to the massive capital inflows it is experiencing.

So maybe we're not such a purple nation, after all. Red is red and blue is blue and they're not mixing, especially if you're using bipartisanship in Washington as a gauge. Regulatory reform of banks is a good example. The party in power would if it could resurrect Glass-Steagall, but that's not going to happen unless they rewrite the rules of the Senate and grant simple majority rule.