“While ordinary people fret about austerity and jobs, the eurozone’s corridors of power have been undergoing a remarkable transformation.” Stephen Foley in The Independent.

Bloomberg article.

Complete and utter balderdash.

“Niall Ferguson peers into Europe’s future and sees Greek gardeners, German sunbathers – and a new fiscal union.  Welcome to the other United States.”

To be honest, I never really had any expectations.

I’m saying nuffink

–Hill Dems Reject GOP Offer Of $640B Plan With Mostly Spend Cuts –Rep. Van Hollen Says Talks Haven’t Shifted To Smaller Deal –But Some Say Hill Leaders Resigned To Smaller Deal Than $1.2T By John Shaw WASHINGTON (MNI) – As Congress’s deficit reduction panel continues to negotiate and braces for a weekend of talks, possible [...]

–Updating 16:18 ET Story With New Statement By Council Members By Jon Hurdle PHILADELPHIA (MNI) – Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett on Friday named a receiver to draw up a financial recovery plan for the City of Harrisburg in the latest attempt to rescue the state capital from more than $300 million in debt that threatens [...]

Looking at the US rating weekly Eurozone downgrades also likely Nice way to end the week. We’re all going to hell in a hand basket together…  

UK’s Cameron rejects EU’s 5% budget increase; Rejects financial transaction tax unless global Merkel: Market worried whether euro will hold together Spanish FinMin says can’t imagine asking for bailout Belgian consumer confidence falls to -14 in November from -7 in October Monti wins confidence vote in Italian lower house DPA confirms Telegraph story that Germany [...]

According to this chart, no it ain’t…

Germany has grown the fastest of any developed economy since the global financial crisis but that growth is faltering, the NY Times notes.  

The special purpose investment vehicle idea to help fund the EFSF expansion may no longer be an option Leverage can still reach EUR 1 trln. The EFSF is slower to get off the ground than a lead balloon.

Sees inflation trending back to 2%

US fiscal policy needs a reboot American business is incredibly muscular His West Coast colleague, Mr. Williams of San Francisco, says more fiscal stimulus is badly needed to spur US recovery. Because, you know, the $5-6 trln in stimulus over the last 4 years has worked so well…

By Denny Gulino WASHINGTON (MNI) – The Federal Reserve has been bold and decisive, yet monetary policy needs reinforcement from fiscal policy if a robust recovery is to arriving any sooner than much later in the decade, San Francisco Federal Reserve Bank John Williams told a summit meeting on inflation targeting being held in Santiago, [...]

–Democratic Member of Panel Says Talks Continue –Deficit Group Is ‘Looking For A Way’ To Get $1.2T By John Shaw WASHINGTON (MNI) – Rep. Chris Van Hollen, a Democratic member of Congress’s deficit reduction panel, said Friday that the committee is “exploring every angle” in its attempt to get a deficit reduction agreement. “We’re looking [...]

It will be interesting to see if the ECB comes anywhere close to its self-imposed limit when the totals are released on Monday. I suspect it will be the busiest week of bond buying in a long, long time.

To propose much tighter fiscal rules on national budgets Aid will be linked to close monitoring of country’s economy Budgets drafts must be based on independent forecasts Proposal that fiscal rules must be written into law, preferably constitutions EU commission should have the right to reject budgets if they do not adhere to rules Will [...]

Everything happens faster in the age of the interwebs. With Spanish spread wider than Italy’s today, we’ve already concluded that the  Conservative government that is expected to be elected this weekend in Spain is a bust! Spain's risk premium – a measure of perceived riskiness based on the interest rate spread of its 10-year bonds [...]