Berlin - Chancellor Angela Merkel has rejected calls for Germany to hold a referendum on European unity policy and bailouts.
http://www.monstersandcritics.com/news/europe/news/article_1674033.php/Merkel-rejects-calls-for-referendum-on-EU-policy
The eurozone crisis has brought to fore the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) indispensability.
But at the same time, there are concerns that the world governments nurse when it comes to the supersonic say of the few elite members and, moreover, the undervalued treatment that many of the Third World and emerging economies get at the hands of the lending organisation. Russia nicely brought to fore such a sentiment when it politely told the IMF’s wizard, Christine Lagarde, that it’s time to open up the club and ensure that developing countries also have a level-playing field. By saying so Moscow held up a carrot of doling out more than $10 billion to the cash-crunch hit European Union, and even came up with a promissory note of doing more in unison with India, China, Brazil and South Africa.
Russia, which is no more a backyard power of Asia and is poised to impact a surprise on the world stage, took no qualms in telling the IMF chief that the discretion of having a European as IMF chief and an American to head the World Bank is unacceptable.
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/DisplayArticle08.asp?xfile=data/editorial/2011/November/editorial_November16.xml§ion=editorial
GEORGE Osborne yesterday slammed plans for a Europe-wide Tobin tax as a “big tax on pensioners”, even as the British government continues to support a global version of the levy.
The chancellor told a stormy meeting of finance ministers in Brussels that a transaction tax applied only in Europe would cost the region 995,000 jobs.
But his decision to also attack a Tobin tax on the grounds that it would disproportionately hurt those with retirement schemes muddied the government’s negotiating position, because even a global version of the levy would hit pensioners.
“I would suggest that we put to rest the idea that there is going to be some European financial transaction tax,” he said.
David Cameron has previously said the coalition supports a global tax “in principle” but yesterday Osborne said the prospect of it winning global backing was “fanciful”, adding: “We have to ask ourselves whether this [debate] is the best use of our time.”
German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble admitted there had been a “lively” discussion but vowed to press on with the proposal.
http://www.cityam.com/news-and-analysis/osborne-fury-over-plans-eu-tobin-tax
BRUSSELS — The European Union is still divided over how to get banks within the 27-country bloc to keep lending to each other as they struggle to avoid a credit crunch that could further hurt economic recovery.
Finance ministers at their meeting in Brussels Tuesday discussed different schemes to guarantee lending between banks, but failed to agree on a common approach amid disagreement over whether states should share the risk of the guarantees.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/industries/eu-divided-over-plan-for-guaranteeing-interbank-lending-to-avoid-credit-crunch/2011/11/08/gIQAaBUT1M_story.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/8876872/Tobin-Tax-What-George-Osborne-told-EU-finance-ministers.html
UK attacks ‘fanciful’ EU transaction tax push
http://tinyurl.com/bujtbfd
EU remains divided over financial transaction tax
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,15518641,00.html
EU financial tax proposal runs into trouble
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/finance/2011/1109/1224307251932.html
For those investors and traders responding to the drivel that passes for TV analysis be cautious as the flawed comments will create misperceptions and the game will change. Yes, Italy is a problem but the situation is not nearly as bad as it is in Spain. The 10-YEAR BOND SPREAD BETWEEN SPAIN AND ITALY IS 114 basis points (Spain 10-year yield 5.57% versus Italy’s 6.71%). The problem for Italy is that it is the only PIIG with a listed BOND FUTURES CONTRACT, THUS MAKING THE ITALIAN 10-YEAR THE PISSING POST FOR ALL THE ANGST IN THE DEBT MARKETS OF EUROPE. Spain, with 22%-plus unemployment is a far greater problem regardless of what the media pundits blather about.
Also, Spain is debating further AUSTERITY MEASURES which will create larger deficits as the NEGATIVE FEEDBACK LOOP GRABS HOLD OF THE SPANISH ECONOMY. It is getting preposterous that the visual media is only concerned about the daily gyrations of the global equity markets. WELL, NOW I HAVE SAID IT.
http://yrah53.wordpress.com/2011/11/08/ochs/
Barclays Says Italy Is Finished: "Mathematically Beyond Point Of No Return"
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/barclays-says-italy-finished-mathematically-beyond-point-no-return
Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Banks in Europe are undercutting regulators' demands that they boost capital by declaring assets they hold less risky today than they were yesterday.
snip
“By allowing sophisticated banks to do their own modeling, we are allowing the poacher to participate in being the game- keeper,” said Adrian Blundell-Wignall, deputy director of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development's financial and enterprise affairs division in Paris. “That risks making core capital ratios useless.”
http://news.businessweek.com/article.asp?documentKey=1376-LU3GOW0D9L3501-5P6ODABP4V2D3QV7A00USLAN2Q
http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/11/08/eu-diesel-opec-idUSL5E7M801R20111108
Financial regulation: UK’s battle with Brussels is intensifying
http://tinyurl.com/84p2l9r
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