liquidity

Germany and France are pushing for treaty changes. Under normal conditions treaty changes are a long drawn out process, subject to horse trading and vulnerable to domestic political considerations and the outcome is far from guaranteed.…

Once again, the 200-day moving average proved to be formidable resistance for the S&P500. After trading though the 1264-65 level on the now expected daily afternoon market moving FT article the index couldn’t hold its water and sold…

The “troika” – Italian, Spanish, and French bond yields - is acting pretty well even after the S&P downgrade. Italy is under 6 percent and that is what matters. We sense there will be tremendous pressure on the shorts and equity risk…

Tomorrow the central banks will auction dollars for the first time under the lower rates. There was some talk that the lower take down at this week's regular refi operation (about 13 bln less euros than were maturing from last week's…

The probability of a German-led fiscal union in Europe is greater than the consensus suspects given its arguments that only an ECB backstop and a European bond will prevent the end of the greater experiment. In addition, the argument is…

My takeaway from two days in DC is that Europe is headed to a blood in the streets outcome. While ECB funding remains ongoing even as it’s uncertain, in any case, the underlying theme remains austerity. There is no plan B.

News links from 2 December 2011 include links on the European sovereign debt crisis, the UK economy, the latest on mortgages and technology as well as other stories.

European leaders will meet again on December 9th in an attempt to come up with the solution. The important point, though, is that the probable solution would call for European nations to surrender some sovereignty over fiscal policy to a…

Mario Draghi has become explicit about what it will take for the ECB to have a more active role in the European sovereign debt crisis.

ISM - ISM Report - November 2011 Manufacturing ISM Report On Business® "The PMI registered 52.7 percent, an increase of 1.9 percentage points from October's reading of 50.8 percent, indicating expansion in the manufacturing…