News Links: Europe’s rescue fiasco leaves Italy defenceless
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Europe’s rescue fiasco leaves Italy defenceless – Telegraph
The sixty days allotted to save monetary union have expired. The G20 has come and gone, yet no workable firewall is in place as the drama engulfs Italy and threatens to light the fuse on the world’s third largest edifice of debt.
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Reeder for Chrome Transforms Google Reader into a Clean Feed Reading Experience
Chrome: Reeder for Chrome is inspired by Reeder for Mac OS and iOS, but it’s not from the same developers. Nevertheless, it retains the clean and easy-to-use look and feel of the original, and completely re-skins Google Reader into a clean and attractive three-paned feed reader that looks just like the desktop and mobile app.
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Why Science Majors Change Their Minds (It’s Just So Darn Hard) – NYTimes.com
Studies have found that roughly 40 percent of students planning engineering and science majors end up switching to other subjects or failing to get any degree. That increases to as much as 60 percent when pre-medical students, who typically have the strongest SAT scores and high school science preparation, are included, according to new data from the University of California at Los Angeles. That is twice the combined attrition rate of all other majors.
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Credit Unions Poach Clients – WSJ.com
Thousands of people flooded into credit unions and small banks over the weekend as part of "Bank Transfer Day," an effort to prod depositors to abandon giant banks. But at least some of the big banks won’t mind losing those customers.
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Generation Jobless: Young Men Suffer Worst in Weak Job Market – WSJ.com
The unemployment rate for males between 25 and 34 years old with high-school diplomas is 14.4%—up from 6.1% before the downturn four years ago and far above today’s 9% national rate. The picture is even more bleak for slightly younger men: 22.4% for high-school graduates 20 to 24 years old. That’s up from 10.4% four years ago
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Risky Mortgage Assets Dog Europe’s Banks – WSJ.com
European banks are sitting on heaps of exotic mortgage products and other risky assets that predate the financial crisis, adding to pressure on lenders that also are holding large quantities of euro-zone government debt.
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John Opel, IBM CEO during onset of the PC era, dies at 86 — Engadget
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Schuldenkrise: Irland verschärft den Sparkurs – Europas Schuldenkrise – FAZ
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Euro zone Sept retail sales fall more than forecast | Reuters
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Greece locked in coalition talks as Italy’s borrowing costs soar – live | Business | guardian.co.uk
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London Police Arrest More Than 3,000 Involved in August Riots – Bloomberg
London police have arrested more than 3,000 people so far who were involved in riots and looting at the beginning of August, the Metropolitan Police Service said in a statement today.
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The economic histories of Argentina and Europe may be about to get even closer. This column weighs up whether Argentina could be on course for another financial crisis.
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ECB debates ending Italy bond buys if reforms don’t come | Reuters
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The CME Margin Notice That Has Everyone In a Tizzy | Kid Dynamite’s World
The CME wanted to make sure that transferred MF Global customer accounts were not subject to higher “initial” margin maintenance requirements when receiving margin calls at their new clearing firm – that they were not whacked with bigger margin calls. Normally, margin calls require the customer to replenish their margin level up to the “initial” margin level. This rule change lowers the “initial” level so that the customer only has to replenish their margin level up to the “maintenance” level, which is the level “set to provide appropriate risk management coverage.”
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Is Greece About to Derail the Bailout Yet Again? « naked capitalism
After Greek Prime Minister Papandreou’s inspired gambit of a national referendum to approve the latest bailout pact was beaten back by an ugly combination of betrayal by his finance minister and bullying by the IMF, Merkel, and Sarkozy, the sad farce of the Eurorescue seemed to be back on track. The endgame is clearly default for Greece, or in lieu of that, a deeper restructuring down the road. In the meantime, the country is being driven into the dirt as a perverse showcase of the creditor sovereignity. Public services of various sorts are falling apart, young people who cannot find jobs are emigrating, suicides are skyrocketing. And the country now is running a trade surplus, which means default and abandonment of the euro is a viable option. And as we and other commentators have observed, Greece is only one of the many probable points of failure in the latest rescue scheme.
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What caused the financial crisis? The Big Lie goes viral – The Washington Post
One group has been especially vocal about shaping a new narrative of the credit crisis and economic collapse: those whose bad judgment and failed philosophy helped cause the crisis. Rather than admit the error of their ways — Repent! — these people are engaged in an active campaign to rewrite history. They are not, of course, exonerated in doing so. And beyond that, they damage the process of repairing what was broken. They muddy the waters when it comes to holding guilty parties responsible. They prevent measures from being put into place to prevent another crisis
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What is Happening in Italy | Angry Bear – Financial and Economic Commentary
The current critical situation Since last summer, Italy has been in play — the price of BTPs fell sharply, that is, the interest rate spread between BTPs and Bunden (German bonds) shot up to around 400 basis point 4%. As a result, Italy enacted a harsh austerity plan with painful spending cuts. The European Union fiscal nagging body (Ecofin) and, more importantly the European Central Bank (ECB) demanded more.
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Goldman: euro could split apart – Telegraph
The chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management has said that the need for a German-led fiscal integration in the eurozone would make it increasingly unattractive for all the countries who joined to stay in the single currency.
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Bundesbank: central bank reserves will not help fund EFSF | Reuters
Germany on Saturday rejected media reports that Bundesbank reserves would be used to fund the euro zone’s rescue facility after German newspapers said Group of 20 leaders had discussed the idea of tapping central banks.
I wouldn’t say Italy is defenceless. I would say Europe fiasco leaves whole Europe and the future of the eurozone defenceless and not so sure about. Indeed I don’t see at the moment any way out of this but trough sound fiscal and administrative reforms and a redesigned EUR currency. You need a lender of last resort, or as history shows, a printer.
“The Smartphone Wars: Signs and Portents” https://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=3894