News Links: How’s That Austerity Working?

How can this downward spiral end with anything other than a technical default?  It can’t, which is why the debt talks collapsed.  The cuts necessary to bring Greek debt down to anything even remotely sustainable is much greater than the supposed 50% haircut agreed to last October.  And that 50% headline number is now a source of heartburn for European politicians.

Average mortgage payments for new borrowers, including first-time buyers and home movers, stood at 27pc of disposable earnings in the fourth quarter of 2011. Kensington and Chelsea in London was named as the least affordable local authority district, with mortgage payments taking up 78pc of disposable local earnings.

The European debt crisis is likely to be over in a "reasonably short timeframe", the chairman of HSBC has predicted.

What part of the cost of goods "Made in China" is actually due to the cost of these imports and what part reflects the value added by U.S. transportation, wholesale, and retail activities? That is, what is the U.S. content of "Made in China"?

Eurozone crisis hitting UK exports. Ernst & Young Item club predicts 0.2% growth for 2012. Centre for Economic and Business Research forecasts 0.4% decline

Rescue workers searching the half-submerged hulk of an Italian cruise ship for missing passengers and crew recovered a sixth body on Monday, more than 48 hours after the vessel capsized off Italy’s west coast.

As previously reported, while people were de-stressing and enjoying their much needed time off during the holidays, the United States Department of Agriculture announced its approval of Monsanto’s ‘drought tolerant’ genetically engineered corn. The decision to give the green light to Monsanto regarding their GE corn didn’t seem too difficult for the Obama Administration, despite receiving nearly 45,000 public comments voicing opposition and only 23 comments in favor since comments opened

the Troika itself is in disarray. It surfaced today at an IMF press briefing in Washington: the IMF no longer supports austerity as a guiding principle. Athens News quoted a senior IMF source, who was speaking on condition of anonymity. Frustration was practically palpable

After a November hearing, state engineer Tony Kratofil said the bridge company has done only ‘superficial’ work to follow the judge’s previous orders. Without the improvements, he said, trucks are stuck using neighbourhood roads.

This is fraud because in its agreements with investors, Bear promised to conduct "due diligence," it promised to conduct "quality control" testing of the loan pools, it promised to "repurchase" defective loans, and it also promised to implement "seller monitoring," i.e. to prevent the securitization of loans from bad suppliers.

The Barron’s Roundtable sees trouble in Europe, but bargains in the U.S. and emerging markets. Marc Faber and Oscar Schafer share their 2012 investment picks.

China can maintain an annual growth rate of 8pc for the next two decades, the World Bank has said, raising hopes that the powerhouse economy will help lead other countries back to growth.

Seemingly alone among private-equity firms, Romney’s Bain Capital was a master at bait-and-switching Wall Street bankers to get its hands on the companies that provided the raw material for its financial alchemy. Other private-equity firms I worked with extensively over the years – Forstmann Little, KKR, TPG and the Carlyle Group, among them – never dared attempt the audacious strategy that Bain partners employed with great alacrity and little shame.

Se her, hvad dronningen sagde til gallataffelet i anledningen af hendes regentjubilæum.

En julio, el organismo había concedido 180 días al Gobierno para comenzar a normalizar las estadísticas. El vocero del Fondo anticipó que podrían tomar algún tipo de medidas, aunque descartó la aplicación de sanciones.

Por cuarto año, es menos de la mitad de lo que estimaron las consultoras.

La mayor aportación de Manuel Fraga ha sido la refundación de la derecha española con el Partido Popular. Con aciertos y errores, representó la grandeza de la política ejercida desde la convicción y la talla intelectual

What follows are the highlights of the interview, and we’ve also posted the entire written transcript, if you want to read every word.

The following is the full transcript of the second part of an interview that David Greelish did with John Sculley during the last week of 2011.

The following is the full transcript of the first part of an interview that David Greelish did with John Sculley during the last week of 2011. You can listen to the audio file (43.1 MB) but Mr Greelish asked The Mac Observer if we would transcribe it for the record, with his full permission. That transcription follows, and part 2 is available, as well. Additionally, this was also published with just the highlights if you’d prefer to read the abbreviated version instead.

There’s a simple explanation for why the world’s zombie banks remain so reluctant to write off worthless assets and tap the equity markets for fresh capital. They don’t want to end up like UniCredit.

Die Randalierer warfen mit Steinen und Molotow-Cocktails, rumänische Sicherheitsbeamte reagierten mit Tränengas: Bei Protesten gegen Präsident Basescu und die Sparpolitik der Regierung ist es in der Hauptstadt Bukarest zu Straßenkrawallen gekommen.

The ECB’s massive injection of cash into the financial system last month is beginning to lubricate seized credit markets and there are "tentative signs" of economic stabilization in the euro area, Draghi said in Frankfurt yesterday. While "substantial downside risks" remain, he pointed to falling yields on Italian and Spanish debt this week.

The Government may be unwilling to admit it but such speculation is consistent with the facts, writes Colm McCarthy

Google changed the way search works this week. It deeply integrated Google+ into search results. It’s ostensibly meant to deliver more personalized results. But it pulls those personalized results largely from Google services-Google+, Picasa, YouTube. Search for a restaurant, and instead of its Yelp page, the top result might be someone you know discussing it on Google Plus. Over at SearchEngineland, Danny Sullivan has compiled a series of damning examples of the ways Google’s new interface promotes Plus over relevancy. Long story short: It’s a huge step backwards.

Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. welcomed a ruling from the U.S. International Trade Commission that denied patent-infringement allegations raised by Apple Inc. Apple had asked the commission to block imports of Motorola phones such as the Droid and Droid X that run Google Inc.’s Android software, claiming they infringed on its patents.