Frontrunning: December 9

• Senate Leaders Set to Begin Debate on Tax Cuts (WaPo)
• Democrats Are Seeking Changes to Tax Deal, Reid Says (Bloomberg)
• Merkel Seeks Calm After Juncker E-bond Blast (FT)
• The rise of behavioural thinking in economics and finance (fund strategy)
• Hilsenrath speaks: Fed Unlikely to Alter Monetary Policy (WSJ)
• How west can reverse a decade of decline (FT)
• Steve Forbes: Why Ben Is Addicted To Failure (Forbes)
• Jon Weil: Operation Broken Trust may be a fitting name. Unfortunately it’s for all the wrong reasons. The public already knows not to trust the government (Bloomberg)
• Are We Subsidizing Unemployment? (IBD)
• Coalition Row Pushes Back Likely Election Date to March (Irish Times)
• Trichet Says Excess Forex Volatility, Disorderly Moves Adverse (Bloomberg)
• North Korea Claims Waters Around Shelled Island (WSJ)
• China is 'doing right thing' to curb inflation: Jim Rogers (China Daily)
• Peter Ehrlich on a journalist conspiracy theory to bring down the eurozone (FT Deutschland, h/t Miles)
• King May Oversee `Uneasy Truce' as BOE Stays Split on Growth (Bloomberg)
• India's Inflation Holds Above `Tolerance Level,' Subbarao Says (Bloomberg)

Economic data highlights:

• France Non-Farm Payrolls for 3Q 0.1% - lower than expected. Consensus 0.3%. Previous 0.3%.
• Germany CPI for Nov 0.1% m/m 1.5% y/y - in line with expectations.Consensus 0.1% m/m 1.5% y/y. Previous 0.1% m/m 1.5% y/y.
• UK Halifax House Prices -0.1% m/m higher than expected -0.7% y/y - in line with expectations.Consensus -0.3% m/m -0.7% y/y. Previous 1.8% m/m 1.2% y/y.
• BOE announces Rates 0.5% - in line with expectations. Consensus 0.5%. Previous 0.5%.

Comments

[Bull v. Bear]

Is it just me or did the PIMCO Total Return Fund lose 5%+ over the past couple days, or is this just some type of re-balancing?

[velobabe]

• Merkel Seeks Calm After Juncker E-bond Blast (FT)

cheeky, wondering what your take is on this?

[papaswamp]

uge spike in NSA claims...massive.
+169,085 to 582,007

611,000 fell off long term as the funding for the 99ers expired. Just not good report.

[hugolp]

The rise of behavioural thinking in economics and finance (fund strategy)

Thanks for this text about behavioural economics. Very interesting.

I have always though that Austrian economics and behavioural economics mix together rather well, only if behavioural economics lost the stupid neoclasical notion that being rational is maximizing production.

[TruthInSunshine]

"Bernanke is rivaling--and may yet surpass--G. William Miller, who headed Bernanke's institution in the wildly inflationary late 1970s, as the worst Fed head in history."

I certainly don't and haven't agreed with everything Steve Forbes has had to say over his career, but man, that guy's been hitting it out of the park lately. His conclusion is blunt and beautifully precise.

Tyler - that article should really be posted as a stand-alone piece on ZH.

[DR]

The most somber must read of the week-US empire collapse in 15 years....

How America will collapse (by 2025)
Four scenarios that could spell the end of the United States as we know it -- in the very near future
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2010/12/06/america_collapse_2025/index...