Now when everything is solved by the European Leaders, we can all sit back and enjoy, or? The markets had a nice rally today, as the trader wrote about earlier this week. The Euro surged like all problems are solved. Now when Greece is “saved”, we can soon start focusing on Spain.

Below from the Euro Leaders;

We reaffirm our commitment to the euro and to do whatever is needed to ensure the financialstability of the euro area as a whole and its Member States. We also reaffirm our determination toreinforce convergence, competitiveness and governance in the euro area. Since the beginning of thesovereign debt crisis, important measures have been taken to stabilize the euro area, reform therules and develop new stabilization tools. The recovery in the euro area is well on track and the eurois based on sound economic fundamentals. But the challenges at hand have shown the need formore far reaching measures.

Full release eurostatement.

First on those Corporate Taxes….

Senator Hagan is looking closely at any creative, short-term measures that can get bipartisan support and put people back to work. One such potential initiative is a well-crafted and temporary change to the tax code that encourages American companies to bring money home and put it towards capital, investment, and–most importantly–American jobs.

For those who don’t know about it, tax repatriation is one of the all-time long cons and also one of the most supremely evil achievements of the Washington lobbying community, which has perhaps told more shameless lies about this one topic than about any other in modern history – which is saying a lot, considering the many absurd things that are said and done by lobbyists in our nation’s capital.

Second on the Murdoch Scandal.

From WSJ,

The Schadenfreude is so thick you can’t cut it with a chainsaw. Especially redolent are lectures about journalistic standards from publications that give Julian Assange and WikiLeaks their moral imprimatur. They want their readers to believe, based on no evidence, that the tabloid excesses of one publication somehow tarnish thousands of other News Corp. journalists across the world.

We have got used to Greece being saved on/off news every other day during the past months. Yes, the corrupt Elite has robbed the country, now the Banks want to get the people of Greece to bail the Banks out, and in the process, the creditors would like to buy some cheap assets in the fire sale to come. (Why sell the national lottery cheaply when you can list it on the NYSE with a nice P/E tag instead?). The trader still argues for a Greek referrendum a la Iceland, where the loss is taken by the creditors, and not by the Greek people, getting poorer by the day. Expect more social unrest in Greece. Der Spiegel reports on the people behind the figures.

Chart, Der Spiegel

Every now and then one should reread the below, especially in these uncertain times.

“Consider a turkey that is fed every day. Every single feeding will firm up the bird’s belief that it is the genreal rule of life to be fed every day by friendly members of the human race “looking out for its best interest,” as a politician would say. On the afternoon of the Wednesday nefore Thanksgiving, something unexpected will happen to the turkey. It will incur a revision of belief.”

“The turkey problem can be generalized to any situation where the same hand that feeds you can be the one that wrings your neck.” s 40, Black Swan, Nassim Taleb

For deeper knowledge, check out video with Taleb from earlier this year here.

All you need to know. For all news, continue below.

Ft.com
A Chinese purchasing managers’ index fell below 50 for July, the first time since March 2009, Bloomberg reports. The early estimate, based on a survey by HSBC and Markit Economics, was down to 49.4 from 50.4 in June. http://ftalphaville.ft.com/thecut/2011/07/21/629581/chinas-july-pmi-below-50/

Building society Nationwide’s (UK) consumer confidence index fell by four points to 51, following an 11 point rise in May, which was one of the largest jumps on record, Reuters says. The figure for June remained above February’s all-time low of 41 points http://ftalphaville.ft.com/thecut/2011/07/21/629561/consumer-confidence-fell-in-june/

Lord Rothschild, chairman of London-listed RIT Capital Partners is working on a new private equity fund that will raise renminbi in China and invest it overseas, the FT says. The fund, J. Rothschild Creat Partners http://ftalphaville.ft.com/thecut/2011/07/21/629531/rothschild-to-launch-china-offshore-fund/

The IMF says a substantial appreciation of the Chinese renminbi would have little effect on trade and growth in the rest of the world even if accompanied by other economic liberalisation, the FT reports. In its annual report on the Chinese economy,  http://ftalphaville.ft.com/thecut/2011/07/21/629441/stronger-yuan-wont-help-us-says-imf/

Germany and France appeared to settle their differences late on Wednesday over a new rescue package for Greece, the FT reports. No immediate details were available but a spokesman Angela Merkel, the German chancellor http://ftalphaville.ft.com/thecut/2011/07/21/629396/germany-and-france-find-common-ground-on-greece/

The White House said it was open to a short-term increase in the US borrowing limit to give “a few more days” for negotiations over a broad fiscal package, the FT reports. “If both sides agree to something significant, http://ftalphaville.ft.com/thecut/2011/07/21/629391/obama-signals-readiness-for-short-term-deal/

The US earnings season helped bolster the rally in riskier assets after Apple joined IBM in delivering better than expected results, reports the FT’s global market overview. The FTSE All-World index was up 0.7 per cent http://ftalphaville.ft.com/thecut/2011/07/20/629356/us-earnings-and-debt-hopes-propel-rally-2/

George Osborne has urged eurozone leaders to “get a grip” on the sovereign debt crisis at their summit today, warning that failure to do so could unleash an economic crisis as serious as the recession that followed the banking crash of 2008. The chancellor told the Financial Times he was “very worried” about the possibility of the eurozone crisis spiralling out of control, warning that it posed an additional threat to Britain’s already “tough” economic situation. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/e357fe94-b2ec-11e0-86b8-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1ScNZAlhf

Brazil’s central bank has raised interest rates for the fifth time this year as the country battles inflation above official target levels. Brazil on Wednesday raised its benchmark Selic rate by 25 basis points to 12.50 per cent, in line with economists’ forecasts, to try to quell inflation that reached 6.75 per cent in the 12 months to mid-July. http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/8b7a2e12-b324-11e0-9af2-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1ScNZAlhf

Wsj.com
Asian stock markets were mixed in choppy trade Thursday as the market tried to balance optimism that European leaders would announce a new bailout package for Greece at Thursday’s European Union summit with uncertainty over whether the $3.7 trillion bipartisan Senate plan announced in the U.S. Tuesday can get approval from both sides of Congress. Japan’s Nikkei Stock Average fell 0.1%, Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.5%, South Korea’s Kospi Composite fell 0.3% and New Zealand’s NZX-50 added 0.3%. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures were up 14 points in screen trade. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903554904576458903862301620.html?mod=WSJ_hp_LEFTWhatsNewsCollection Continue reading →

While everybody is focusing on the debt ceiling and the Gang of Six, the US Economy is still facing big problems, and people don’t really care about the debt ceiling, as they have no jobs. Gallup reports,

Americans name the economy and unemployment/jobs as the most important problems facing the nation, as they have all year, despite the dominant focus in Washington on the federal debt ceiling. The deficit comes in third as the top problem, followed by dissatisfaction with government in general, healthcare, and concerns about wars.

Overall, 74% of Americans in Gallup’s July 7-10 update mention some aspect of the economy as the nation’s top problem, while 42% mention some non-economic concern — proportions roughly on par with most months so far this year.

The economy, unemployment/jobs, and the federal deficit/debt are the top three specific problems Americans have mentioned since March, although to varying degrees. The current 16% mention of the deficit/debt is up slightly from May and June, but essentially the same as April’s 17%.

Meanwhile, the percentage of Americans naming jobs as the top problem has been on the rise since the recent low point in April of this year, increasing eight percentage points between then and now, and is back to where it was in March.

Continue reading →