headlines

A smattering of today's headlines across Egypt's state and private press... And a quick glance at Albania, where three people have already been killed in recent anti-government riots: is this the fuse that lights up Europe?

While markets across the world have been crashing, the Zimbabwe Stock Exchange has being seeing record gains as citizens turn to equities to protect their money from the country's hyperinflation. The benchmark Industrial Index soared 257 percent on Tuesday up from a previous one day record of 241 percent on Monday with some companies seeing share prices increase by up to 3,500 percent. But before Wall Street traders start packing their bags and heading south, they should bear in mind that these figures are just another representation of Zimbabwe's collapsing economy and are almost meaningless in real terms. Zimbabwe, once a regional breadbasket, is staggering amid the world's worst inflation, a looming humanitarian emergency and worsening shortages of food, gasoline and most basic goods. Inflation is at 231 million percent, but some experts put it more at about 20 trillion percent.

Pretty much says it all

In continuing my data intense, hardcore, uber-objective dissection of the stuff that is proffered through the mainstream media (MSM), I bring you...

This is where Jim Cramer (and every sell side analyst) comes out and tells us all this is just the market exaggerating stuff and what not. Oh, and gold being up 1% as a fiat currency alternative is completely irrelevant to anything.

In other, actually relevant, news, the Greek Finance Minister is providing the usual share of cheerful Monday morning headlines. As Emperor Palpatine would say, the chaos in Europe is now complete.

08:13 02/15 GREECE FIN MIN: WE ARE IN A TERRIBLE MESS
08:24 02/15 GREECE FIN MIN: GREECE IS BEING PUSHED TOWARDS THE EDGE

More as we get it.

10:44 02/09 EU ALMUNIA: SUPPORT SHOULD BE IN RETURN FOR GREEK EFFORTS
10:43 02/09 EU ALMUNIA: WANTS EU LEADERS TO SAY THEY WILL SUPPORT GREECE
10:41 02/09 EU ALMUNIA: CURRENT SITUATION MOST DIFFICULT SINCE EMU START
10:41 02/09 EU ALMUNIA: EU SPECIAL SUMMIT THURSDAY V IMPORTANT
10:40 02/09 EU ALMUNIA: NEED TO REESTABLISH CONFIDENCE IN EMU, EURO
10:34 02/09 EU ALMUNIA: NEED TO INCREASE COORDINATION IN EURO ZONE
10:36 02/09 EU ALMUNIA: EMU CAN AND SHOULD SOLVE GREECE BY OURSELVES

• Durable Goods: -5.2% vs -2.5% consensus, Jobless Claims: 667k vs 625k; Continuing: 5112k vs 5025k
• More black hole...
  

• Capmark in default, hires Lazard to restructure balance sheet (PR)
• Lyondell fails to win DIP approval, hearing to pick up Thursday morning after profuse objections (Debtwire)
• Citi to announce agreement with government on Thursday (Reuters)
• One perspective of the government's Prime Brokerage program aka TALF (

• Roubini: Banks Need Temporary Nationalization (RGEMonitor)
• Ukraine rating cut to CCC+ by S&P (Bloomberg)
• Pound's slump may destabilize British economy, Eurozone (Bloomberg)
• College fund-raising outlook darkens (

• Japan exports fall 45.7%, resulting record trade deficit means no more Treasury purchases (Bloomberg)
• Merrill loss even greater: unseen $500 million charge emerges (FT)
• Highland's troubles grow: UBS sues for $745 million loss in CDO fund (Bloomberg)
• Renters losing edge on homeowners (

• Microsoft provides guidance, sees tough times ahead, loses share to Apple (Silicon Alley Insider)
• Obama to continue talking as economy flails (Bloomberg)
• Sir Stanford exclusively marketed fund run by Joe Biden family members (WSJ)
• Thain set to testify on bonuses today at 4 PM (

• Asian stocks drop to five year low (Bloomberg)
• Separating Eastern European's wheat from chaff (NYT) [Funny how this stuff develops.
  

• US Government seeking $40 billion DIP Loan for GM and Chrysler (WSJ)
• The extent of Obama's bank nationalization plan (Bloomberg)
• Newspaper dominoes: Philadelphia Inquirer files for bankruptcy (FT)
• U.A.E.
  

• CPI reading 0.3% in line with expectations, core up 0.2%
• Swiss bank shares tumble on UBS tax probe (Reuters)
• GM unit SAAB files for bankruptcy in Sweden (Bloomberg)
• Switzerland threatened with bankruptcy (Credit Writedowns)
• Financiers' views on Wall Street's future (