Frontrunning: February 23

• Qaddafi Vows New Crackdown as Violence Spreads (Bloomberg)
• Merkel Says EU Considering Extension of Financial Aid Program for Greece (Bloomberg)
• Dale Joins Sentance, Weale in Push for BOE Rate Increase (Bloomberg)
• Making sense of Wisconsin's union showdown (WaPo)
• Ireland Needs Help with its Debt (FT)
• What Inflation Means to You: Inside the Consumer Price Index (dshort)
• New Zealand's Central Bank May Hold Rates as Earthquake Postpones Recovery (Bloomberg)
• Hong Kong's Main Task Is `Fighting Inflation,' Tsang Says (Bloomberg)
• Managing Volatile Capital Flow to Get Tough (Economic Times)
• Bahrain Says Will Release Political Prisoners (WSJ)
• Higher Inflation Is On The Way (Forbes)

European Economic Highlights

• Euro-Zone Industrial New Orders NSA 18.5% y/y - higher than expected. Consensus 16.2% y/y. Previous 20.0% y/y.
• Euro-Zone Industrial New Orders SA 2.1% m/m - higher than expected. Consensus -1.0% m/m. Previous 2.2% m/m.
• France CPI - EU Harmonised for January -0.3% m/m 1.9% y/y - lower than expected. Consensus -0.1% m/m 2.2% y/y. Previous 0.5% m/m 2.0% y/y.
• France Consumer Price Index for January -0.2% m/m 1.8% y/y - lower than expected. Consensus -0.1% m/m 2.0% y/y. Previous 0.5% m/m 1.8% y/y.
• France CPI Ex Tobacco Index for January 120.32 - lower than expected. Consensus 120.57. Previous 120.61.
• Italy CPI (NIC incl. tobacco) for January 0.4% m/m 2.1% y/y - in line with expectations. Consensus 0.4% m/m 2.1% y/y. Previous 0.4% m/m 2.1% y/y.
• Italy CPI - EU Harmonized for January-1.6% m/m 1.9% y/y - lower than expected.Consensus -1.2% m/m 2.4% y/y. Previous -1.2% m/m 2.4% y/y.
• Norway Unemployment rate (AKU) for December 3.54% - lower than expected.Consensus 3.6%. Previous 3.6%.
• Switzerland Producer & Import Prices for January 0.1% m/m 0.0% y/y - in line with expectations.Consensus 0.1% m/m 0.0% y/y. Previous 0.3% m/m 0.3% y/y.
• UK BBA Loans for House Purchase for January 28932 - lower than expected.Consensus 29250. Previous 28907.

Comments

[Oh regional Indian]

Looks like Mad Max Muammar is the chosen one after all.
He will take it all down with him, robes and all.
Every headline shows the perfect storm brewing harder every day.

What would Terrence McK say? Next big date is??

Back in a bit with that.

ORI

http://aadivaahan.wordpress.com/2011/02/23/ihumor-for-un-funny-days/

[More Critical T...]

LOL, ZH "Mad Max" pimp the shorts reporting is at it again:

Euro-Zone Industrial New Orders SA 2.1% m/m - higher than expected. Consensus -1.0% m/m. Previous 2.2% m/m.

"Scream your lungs out when the numbers drop, hide the news in a footnote when they go back up again."

The drop in EU industrial productivity a few weeks ago was due to the extremely hard and volatile winter:

https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/Winter_of_2010%E2%80%9320...

Now Europe is catching up from the backlog.

Expect more of the same as global warming will not stop anytime soon:

http://www.ucar.edu/news/releases/2009/images/temps_2.jpg

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/sciencefair/post/2011/02/record-...

[firstdivision]

Tyler,

Anyword on when Bloomberg is going to fully take over the ABC Confidence index? 

[ciaoant1]

Hi from Greece.

We just had a massive demonstration of the people, since there was a general strike today.

The people do not accept the turanny of the government.

Here is a picture:

http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg612/scaled.php?tn=0&server=612&filename=5et...

The media in Greece are on strike + they do not say the truth anyway, so there is very limited coverage. Here are some twitter messages (some are in Greek, some in English):

http://rednotebook.gr/details.php?id=1881

[The Count]

Just a reminder and reality check. The Greeks got themselves into this mess by lying to get into the EU in the first place and secondly about your debt levels. So I would say some punishment is in order. 

[ciaoant1]

The people who didi the things you say are the only ones who are not being punished. We are, the people. And we are just "not gonna take it", as an old song says

[HedgeFundLIVE]

what are people's expectations for today in the market?  i am staying net short until we test the reality of the 1300 level in the Spooz:

http://www.hedgefundlive.com/blog/wednesday-market-expectationsfrom-jeremy-frommer-short-into-friday-flat-for-the-weekend

[Cognitive Dissonance]

Making sense of Wisconsin's union showdown (WaPo)

Now, even three years after reality came crashing down, we have only just begun to figure out how to bring about the reduction in living standards that will be necessary to create a sustainable balance. Will the pain come in the form of prolonged high unemployment? Or wage and salary cuts? Or reduction in the value of homes and financial assets? Or loss of ownership of American companies? Or price inflation? Or higher taxes? Or reductions in government services and benefits? The right answer, of course, is "all of the above." The hole we dug for ourselves was so deep and so wide that we'll need all of them to get us out of it. 

He forgot to mention re-establishing the rule of law and the eviseration of the financial thieves. But of course he wouldn't because that would require questioning the very system that sustains him. Talk about the problems the system is creating but never question the system itself.

[Pants McPants]

Exactly.  And who makes the rules (and therefore stands to benefit) from falling standards of living?  The same people who pull the strings behind the scenes.

Gov't will be blamed, but somehow expand, throughout the duration of the mess.

It's as though folks are caught in a permanent (il)logic loop awaiting the "savior" that alas will never come.

[Careless Whisper]

Baba Booey (yes, that one) Elected to Greenwich Parks & Rec Commission. Town Selectman Opposes. Gets "Doggy Bag" In Mailbox. Town Orders Lysol. Howard Stern Lampoons Miss FancyPants.

http://www.greenwichtime.com/local/article/RTM-irked-by-Howard-Stern-par...

[Johnny Lawrence]

In today's edition of what the big financial firms are saying...

I just received an email from a big mutual fund company recommending ways to invest in an inflationary environment. 

It definitely seems that the overwhelming majority of "experts" are saying that inflation is here to stay. 

As a contrarian investor, this doesn't make me think that inflation is the slam dunk everyone here says it is.

[Careless Whisper]

The top lawyer at the SEC and his two brothers inherited more than $1.5 million in phony profits from their mother's investment in Bernard Madoff's epic Ponzi scheme, according to a startling suit filed by bankruptcy trustee Irving Picard.

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/top_sec_lawyer_and_his_bros_inherited...

[Temporalist]

Problem banks grow in fourth quarter, FDIC says

"The number of problem banks in the U.S. grew in the fourth quarter, with total failures reaching an 18-year high in all of 2010, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., said Wednesday, even as the agency reported another quarter of healthy profits overall for the banking industry."

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/problem-banks-grow-in-fourth-quarter-fd...