Archive - Jul 6, 2012 - Story

• Beggars can't be choosers after all: Greece Drops Demand to Ease Bailout Terms (FT)
• It took journalists 4 years to get that under ZIRP all banks have to be hedge funds: US Banks Taking Risks in Search of Yield (FT)
• Made-In-London Scandals Risk City Reputation As Money Center (Bloomberg)
• Merkel Approval Rises to Highest Since 2009 After EU Summit (Bloomberg)
• Judge orders JPMorgan to explain withholding emails (Reuters)
• U.S. hiring seen stuck in low gear in June (Reuters)
• Germans Urged to Block Merkel on Integration (WSJ)
• Crony Capitalism Rules: Countrywide used VIP program to sway Congress (Reuters)
• Barclays’ US Deal Rewrites Libor Process (FT)
• Cyprus Juggles EU and Russian Support (FT)
• Delay Seen (Again) For New Rules on Accounting (WSJ)
• Lagarde Says IMF to Cut Growth Outlook as Global Economy Weakens (Bloomberg)

Summit full life: One week. Literally. Last Friday morning speculation that Germany had "caved" to Mario Monti, somehow allowing beggars to be choosers, and would allow an unconditional and IMF-free rescue of Spain and Italy while the seniority of the ESM was eliminated, sending the Spanish 10 Year yield to under 6.2%. The same security is now back over 7%, where it was just before the summit, as Finland and Holland (or half of Europe's AAA-rated countries), and even Germany, made it quite clear, as we said all along, that stripping seniority of a piece of debt is far more complex than saying one wants to do it in a Memorandum of Understanding. The other thing pushing Spanish spreads wider was German FinMin spokesman Kotthaus saying that no decision on Spain can be taken on Monday as there is no Troika report on Spain bank aid yet, and that the European bailout activation, which was supposed to begin on July 9th, may be delayed until July 20. At that point it will likely be delayed again, only this time GSPGs may be trading wider than their lifetime highs of 7.285%. Finally, adding insult to Mario Monti "victory" is that Merkel's popularity rating just hit a multi-year high. So: who was last week's summit "winner" again?