Bring back the capitalist model ( Washington Times ) Initial claims at 462,000, higher than consensus, continuing claims higher by 37,000; snow not implicated ( Bloomberg , Reuters ) Naked swap crackdown in Europe rings hollow without Washington ( Bloomberg ) Volcker rule gets lift in Senate amid reform talks ( Reuters ) Greeks strike over budget cuts, stocks decline ( NYT , Bloomberg , Reuters ) China inflation surges ( Bloomberg , Reuters ) NY lieutenant governor proposes deficit plan ( Reuters ) Roubini: beware a double dip recession ( Forbes ) With $13 billion 30 Years on deck, 2s30s spread at record wides ( Bloomberg ) Unemployment benefits have now become yet another entitlement program ( CSM ) Bernanke's dilemma: hyperinflation and the US dollar ( Seeking Alpha ) Greek debt crisis could raise problems for US and other countries ( WaPo )
Asian stocks fluctuated as shipping lines and oil companies declined.
Columbia's Charles Calomiris, who predicted the Argentina sovereign debt crisis (not sure which one: do people actually keep count?) was on Bloomberg TV spreading some more logic, first as pertains to those satanic monsters better known as CDS traders with the following piece of brilliance - "the CDS market always requires two parties in any transaction ." This is something that everyone tends to forget. Unlike stocks or cash bonds, where the whole concept of Zero Sum is somewhat murky (especially in naked shorting) in derivatives it is precisely that - one man's loss is another man's gain - no exceptions. Why is nobody scapegoating those traders who enable the speculators to exist
The meeting between the Greek Minister Of Prime Scapegoating and the US Secretary of Treasury Defrauding ("I used TurboTax") has ended "satisfactorily": idiotic lunacy, which we are now convinced has mutated and gone airborne, has spread and now Geithner is very likely infected. According to preliminary reports president Obama may be contagious as well
The most probable replacement to Trichet, Axel Weber who is a member of ECB's governing council said earlier on Bloomberg TV that extend and pretend is now shifting to Europe warning that Germany's Q1 growth could be negative, of course qualifying the statement that everything past this quarter will be stronger. Weber said that "a very weak first quarter means that the second and third quarters will be stronger." Even so he said there was still no reason to revise the expectation of German growth in 2010 to just over 1.5%
First China comes through on its threat of disposing US securities, now Europe is rapidly isolating Wall Street from participating in European sovereign bond offerings. The Guardian reports that "for the first time in five years, no big US investment bank appears among the top nine sovereign bond bookrunners in Europe, according to Dealogic data compiled for the Guardian." Curiously, just the one bank which has recently found itself out of favor with domestic investors, Morgan Stanley, has a notable presence in Euro sovereign league tables (at number 10). The biggest loser - the dynamic duo of vampire squid and Fed Jr.
While we are not sure how Betty Liu feels about Rogers' invitation to come eat some Wienerschnitzel, what is certain is that Greek PM Papandreou is not too happy with the commodities pundit right about now. When asked should Europe bail out Greece, Jim says: " No, of course not, they should let Greece go bankrupt. It would be good for the euro, it would be good for Greece, it would be good for everybody ." Alas, more true words have rarely been spoken
Submitted by the man himself in all its epilepsy-inducing grammatic glory.
Asian share markets were higher Monday with the Nikkei up 1.4% as exporters gained. China pledged to keep prices stable this year, to rein in lending and manage consequences.
Curiously, Zero Hedge just received the following email from the Greek Embassy. Little did we realize that our fringe, breathless ramblings were considered necessary and sufficient to merit official government listserv inclusion. We write today to announce the upcoming visit of Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou to Washington, DC from March 7-9.
Thursday, March 11, 2010
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