Financial News: 2009-12-15

• Swedes want to join euro – Independent.ie
• Spain tops ‘misery index’ – Independent.ie (Misery loves company, though.)
• Capital One, Discover credit-card charge-offs rise | Reuters
• RBS CEO Hester Attacks ‘Politicization’ of Bank Amid Bonus Talks – Bloomberg.com
• Carstens Says Mexico’s Finances Are Solid After S&P Rating Cut – Bloomberg.com
• Japan’s Recovery Too Weak to Boost Domestic Demand – Bloomberg.com
• Roy Greenslade: Buffett – my newspaper ownership is not rational | Media | guardian.co.uk
• MBNA to pay back €18m to 500,000 in card blunder – Independent.ie (This is BofA. They also do cards in the UK via MBNA.)
• Housing boom spreads in Australia (Both Australia and Canada’s housing markets are frothing at the mouth.)
• Tax rates when selling gold, taxes on collectibles – MSN Money
• Liz Pulliam Weston – Are you foolish to pay your mortgage? – MSN Money
• Eurozone worries hit euro, weigh on world stocks
• Ontario, Quebec hit home sale records (bubble, bubble toil and trouble?)
• GM will repay governments by June, says CEO
• DealBook Column – Wall Street Bankers Put Obama on Hold – NYTimes.com (Obama is not going to like this piece at all.)
• Banks: Real Reform and Pitchforks – Room for Debate Blog – NYTimes.com

  Some serious talking via Douglas Ellison, Yves Smith, Bill Black, Megan McArdle and me. I like how the DealBook blog described us: ‘luminaries.’ Good laugh,eh?

Video of the Day: Tony Blair on the War In Iraq

(I linked to a Bloomberg story on this on Sunday.  Pretty amazing, if you ask me.)

Blair’s Iraq war comments ‘surprised’ defence secretary – BBC News