Alan Grayson Discloses That Dodd Bill Covertly Eliminates Already Passed Legislation Requiring Full Fed Audit

Once again we get confirmation that Chris Dodd is nothing but a paid manservant for his Federal Reserve masters, in addition to being a lame duck, whose last days in office are meant to do everything to allow the old-school Wall Street ways of endless secrecy and Fed bailouts to continue in perpetuity. As Ryan Grim points out "Alan Grayson and co-author Rep. Ron Paul passed legislation through the House that would allow the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to audit the Federal Reserve and, after a delay, release the information to Congress. It was a remarkable victory, with a populist coalition beating back the combined lobbying efforts of the Treasury Department, the Fed and Wall Street banks.  The Senate has been more hostile territory for the Fed audit provision. Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) opposes the Grayson-Paul version, but allowed a much more restrictive audit proposal from Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Oregon) into his bill." Why and how Dodd believes he can stand against this critical issue, that over 80% of America supports by demanding Fed transparency, is beyond any rational attempts at explanation. How he hopes to get away with it is even more mindboggling.

Guest Post: The Case Against The AUD

In our last quarterly we said that Australia could be one of the unexpected victim of the next downturn. We received plenty of questions on the subject so we have decided to write an ad hoc research on the subject which you will find attached. The Australian Dollar is the most overvalued G20 currency and we feel that the economy is mainly dependent on the continuation of the nascent Chinese credit bubble and an increase of domestic leverage and real estate prices. The later being nearly 50% above fair value they will sooner rather than later mean-revert. The Chinese connection makes its resources sector a good proxy to express potential negative view on China. - Damien Cleusix

Even Goldman Is Sick Of The Recurring Greek Deja Vu All Over Again Stupidity, Says Sell Euro

Overnight we duely got the tech break and printed a fesh low of 1.3201 . The move seemed to be stop loss driven rather than on the back of fresh negative news . With hindsight it would appear that the market piled into shorts on the back of the technical break. A short market, much better IFO and news that Greece is to activate EU aid mechanism led to a very sharp rally to 1.3347. In parallel euribor sold off , Greek cds and spreads improved notably. But this still strikes me as a repeat of the type of news flow and price action which has been a defining feature of this whole episode. I don’t think this solves the sustainability issue and I think we will see the euro come under pressure again. The market has again cleaned out the weaker shorts and I think we will now struggle to sustain bounces.

Templeton's Mark Mobius: "Let Greece Fail"

Mark Mobius, at least smi-hypocritically, joins the camp of those who still dare live in reality. Bloomberg reports that the Templeton Chairman said Greece should be allowed to go bankrupt as that would be the best way to sort out its finances. “If we pour piles of cash into a country where corruption extends to top government officials, we won’t see any reforms,” Mobius told the Ljubljana based paper. “There is no other solution than to stop financing Greece with creditors taking responsibility and suffering damages, so countries should help them, not Greece, limit those damages.”

So Much For The Rescue: Greek Bund Spreads Bounce From 540 bps Back To 570 bps

After tightening to 540 bps, Greek-German 10 Year spreads are now back to 570 bps. The final outcome at this rate would still be a sovereign bankruptcy, but one which would have the US algos smiling all the way to the bank as they surge on every piece of good news and ignore the bad (a Greek Chapter 11 means billions in advisory fees for Wall Street - buy). At least the global market has said that at this point a Greek bankruptcy is a certainty. All those covering EUR shorts may want to reconsider.

Daily Highlights: 4.23.10

• Euro, Asian finance stocks fall on Greece concerns.
• Eurostat agency suggested Greece's debt crisis is worse than investors believed.
• Geithner harnesses G-20 behind Yuan push as India, Brazil raise pressure.
• Greece may seek Euro-region bridge loan as $11.3B redemption looms.
• Japan's bank minister not too keen on financial regulation.
• Air China swings to profit in 2009 of $709.4M on fuel hedging gains.
• Amazon.com's Q1 profit jumped 68% to $299M on a 46% rise in revs to $7.13B.