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Revenge of the Sovereign Nation – Telegraph Blogs
at least the Greeks are stripping away the self-serving claims of the creditor states that their “rescue” loan packages are to “save Greece”. They are nothing of the sort. Greece has been subjected to the greatest fiscal squeeze ever attempted in a modern industrial state, without any offsetting monetary stimulus or devaluation. The economy has so far collapsed by 14pc to 16pc since the peak – depending who you ask – and is spiralling downwards at a vertiginous pace.
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Greece: The Debtor that Roared « naked capitalism
The goal of Papandreou’s move presumably is to renegotiate the terms of the deal imposed on Greece. To get the heretofore dictatorial Troika to take him seriously, he’s effectively threatened the nuclear option of blowing up the rescue package, which means default. And the disruption of a default suddenly changes the calculus of a Euro exit.
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FT Alphaville » MF Global and echoes of Repo 105
What caused MF Global’s downfall? According to Bradley Abelow, MF Global’s Chief Operating Officer, much of the blame may lie with Finra’s request for MF Global to add capital to support its off-balance sheet exposure to European sovereign debt and reveal them publicly. These were, as we have discussed, structured as repo-to-maturity trades. They were also maintained off-balance sheet.
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Andy Xie: China shouldn’t aid eurozone | beyondbrics | FT.com
“it is not in China’s interest to participate in any European bailout scheme”, especially after Greece’s sudden announcement of a referendum. “The abrupt change [in Athens] and deepening uncertainty are warnings against any China’s involvement in European affairs,” says Xie.
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The question I’m trying to answer right now is how the final act will be played. At this point I’d guess soaring rates on Italian debt leading to a gigantic bank run, both because of solvency fears about Italian banks given a default and because of fear that Italy will end up leaving the euro. This then leads to emergency bank closing, and once that happens, a decision to drop the euro and install the new lira. Next stop, France.
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Germany sees first jobless rise in 18 months – FT.com
Seasonally-adjusted unemployment rose by 10,000 in October to 2.94m – the first rise since February 2010. The unexpected increase interrupted a steadily falling trend seen for more than two years, which has taken unemployment to the lowest levels seen since pan German figures were first compiled in the early 1990s. The unemployment rate rose to 7 per cent of the workforce, from 6.9 per cent in September.
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Phil Libin, Evernote CEO: With Freemium Products, Focus On The “Free” | TechCrunch
“People tend to highlight the ‘emium’ part. We value the ‘free’ part. The free version of Evernote IS the full product — but as long as you keep using it, the perceived value just keeps going higher and higher.” In other words: make people fall in love with the free product, and they’ll be all the more willing to give your their money without you even having to ask
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‘Bravo To Papandreou. He Is Peeling Back The Layers Of The Rotten Onion That Is The EMU’
The last time we had a referendum in Greece was 1974 when the monarchy was abolished and Third Hellenic Republic was established. Since 1829 there have only been 8 referendums in Greece, which ironically enough is very close to the number of defaults since that time at 5.
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A Greek Referendum? – Blogs – IIEA – The Institute of International and European Affairs
Mr. Papandreou’s has been assuring the world that the Greek public would vote for the package if given the choice. However, one problem with this assessment is that the deal as agreed simply does not solve Greece’s debt problem.
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There has been no press statement forthcoming from the three parties who together are responsible for the €3.6bn “accounting error” reported today, which means that our national debt will be restated and will be €3.6bn less than previously understood. The story of the error was first reported this morning by Ireland’s TV3 ; the initial details were sketchy but this is what we know so far:
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Top brass replaced | Athens News
In a surprise move, the defence minister proposed on Tuesday evening the complete replacement of the country’s top brass.
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Papandreou is fully aware of the risk of being branded a traitor, fairly or unfairly. He is also aware of the advancing collapse of his government. But he is reluctant to hold fresh elections because he knows his party would be destroyed. And so he has opted for the desperate gamble of the referendum in the hope of buying time, as well as scaring people with the "euro or drachma" question.
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MF Global Admitted Using Client Money As Troubles Mounted: Official
An MF Global executive admitted that to federal regulators in a phone call early Monday after regulators discovered money missing from clients’ accounts, according to an official familiar with the conversation. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn’t authorized to discuss an investigation by federal regulators.
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Something can’t be right when the modest city of Larisa, capital of the agricultural region of Thessaly with 250,000 inhabitants, has more Porsches per head of the population than New York or London.
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Europe Markets Drop on News of Greek Referendum – NYTimes.com
Such a collapse would not only render the referendum plan moot, it would likely scuttle — or at least delay — the debt deal that European leaders agreed on after marathon negotiations in Brussels last week, putting Greece on a fast track to default and raising the prospect of the country’s exit from the monetary union of countries sharing the euro currency.
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FT Alphaville » MF Global and the repo-to-maturity trade
If ever there was an example of an “overnight repo Black Swan” event, MF Global’s “repo-to-maturity” laddered trades seem to be it. Though, in this case, they’re probably better described as the realisation of the “short-term repo Black Swan”.
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Chrysler U.S. auto sales up 27 percent | Reuters
Chrysler Group LLC reported its best October sales since 2007 on Tuesday, the first major automaker to announce sales for what is expected to be the best monthly showing of the year.