Brent Nyitray
Fairlington Blade
Let the mutherfuker burn!
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Kevin S. Willis
Michigoose
lmsinca
markinaustin
Memetrics
novahockey
quarterback
ScottC
yellojktVital Statistics:
| Last | Change | Percent | |
| S&P Futures | 1256.9 | -4.7 | -0.37% |
| Eurostoxx Index | 2304.6 | -20.250 | -0.87% |
| Oil (WTI) | 98.39 | -0.600 | -0.61% |
| US Dollar Index (DXY) | 77.383 | 0.438 | 0.57% |
| 10 Year Govt Bond Yield | 2.08% | 0.02% |
Markets are a touch weaker this morning as Italian and Spanish government bond yields back up. The markets are beginning to worry that Spain, with its burst real estate bubble, will be the next to face scrutiny. Luckily for the Spanish banks, they have exposure to the strong Brazilian economy, so they are probably in better shape than the Italian banks. Unicredito is considering a 7.5 billion euro share issue to raise capital. This will become a trend, given the pre-crisis capital levels of the Euro banks.
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All Things in Moderation 
It looks like the pressure is on the ECB which may not be willing or perhaps able to support the bond rates.The EU's €440bn rescue fund (EFSF) is supposed to take the baton from the ECB so it can step back, but the fund is not yet ready and is itself struggling to raise money at a viable cost.The replacement of Mr Berlusconi with a credible leader committed to the deep reforms demanded by the EU makes it much easier for the ECB to justify help for Italy, but it is far from clear that the bank is willing to give Mr Monti a "dowry" of lower borrowing costs to lighten his task.Jens Weidmann, head of Germany's Bundesbank and a pivotal ECB governor, has further dug in his heels against any extension of bond purchases."We have a mandate and we have to stick to our mandate. Fixing an interest rate for a country is certainly not compatible with our mandate," he said over the weekend."The eurosystem must not be a lender of last resort for sovereigns because this would violate Article 123 of the EU treaty. I cannot see how you can ensure the stability of a monetary union by violating its legal provisions."Investors are betting on a torrid relief rally across global asset markets this week on hopes that new leaders in Italy and Greece will at least break weeks of deadlock, but it is already clear that politics will remain messy.
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This could probably be it's own post but I don't have time this morning to work something up. Typical of the political environment we live in, the "Super Committee" has potentially decided they can't reach an agreement on the tax portion of their recommendations so they're considering doing the cuts now, which includes entitlements, and handing off the revenue portion to the tax committees at a later date…………..lolAt a public hearing on Nov. 1, Erskine B. Bowles, a co-chairman of Mr. Obama’s fiscal commission, told the panel, “I don’t think you can possibly rewrite the tax law between now and Nov. 23.” But Mr. Bowles said, “We do recommend that you delegate it to the tax-writing committees and set up a framework” for them.Grover G. Norquist, the president of Americans for Tax Reform, whose antitax pledge has been signed by most Republicans in Congress, said in an interview, “I am not losing any sleep” over the Republicans’ latest proposal. Mr. Norquist said he was confident that, “at the end of the day, the Republican House will not pass a tax increase.”“As a face-saving measure,” Mr. Norquist said, the deficit reduction panel “could give lots of instructions to the tax-writing committees.” In complying with those instructions, he said, the House and the Senate could pass very different bills.
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lms, how did it take so long for the SuperCommittee to figure out it couldn't reach agreement? I thought it was a foregone conclusion.Odd morning today. MrJS cracked his head on a tall filing cabinet and had to be taken to the ER for stitches and a CT scan. No biggie, but it has altered the morning routine.
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Give MrJS an aspirin and put him to bed……..lol. At least there's no permanent damage, thank God. Hang in there, tomorrow's a new day. The Super Committee will turn out to be a joke, like so much of our political shenanigans of the past decade. And then their approval ratings will sink even lower………..big surprise.
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MsJ, sorry about your husband. Lms, wouldn't worry about entitlement "cuts." it's never happened in this Country before. That's why we're doomed.Sorry I missed out over the weekend. Work stuff and this week promises more of the same, so my comments will be spotty.
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On NPR this am, Cooke reported that Sen McConnell blames Obama for the super-committees failure to reach agreement. Does that make sense to anyone?
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He's just pandering to his base. See Debbie Wasserman Schultz as a D example. Everybody needs to fundraise.
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McWing, busy at work is great, at least in the general sense. I'm quite confident we'll get cuts to both SS and Medicare in the very near future…………it would be nice if they were a little less severe than what would happen without either a little increased revenue or health care reform. We'll see I guess.
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Well, I guess there's a first time for everything. But I just don't believe there is the political will to confront the electoral demographic that votes in the highest percentage. Hence our debt/death spiral is irreversible.
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McWing: Lms, wouldn't worry about entitlement "cuts." it's never happened in this Country before. That's why we're doomed.I'd be happy with just keep entitlement growth under control. Limbaugh and others have lambasted Obama as being hypocritical because he went several years without signing off the the SS COLA–but he was right not to do so. And they would have been defending George W. Bush if he had been the one not signing off on Cost of Living Adjustments for SS recipients–though, of course, Bush did not try to control those particular entitlement increases.
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The only time deficits/entitlement spending are an issue is during periods of divided government because it's a convenient tool with which to attack the other party. During periods of unified government, deficit reduction is secondary to tax cuts or increasing government spending, depending on which party is in power.
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Interview with Donald Berwick at the Post today:Berwick on health care: ‘We have a wealth of good ideas, but they still need to be nurtured’
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Why We Respect Congress:"CBS’s “60 Minutes” ran an interesting piece last night on the practice of federal lawmakers making investment decisions based on inside information that the public does not have. It’s legal — members of Congress exempted themselves from insider-trading laws — but to put it mildly, the appearance of impropriety is hard to miss."Spencer Bachus’ alleged insider trading
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In a horrific case of myopic self-absorption, NBA players rejected the the latest contract offer from the owners today and vowed to decertify their union and take the case to the public putting the season in jeopardy. Not sure how they will make the case that a 5 million average salary isn't enough, but you can be sure there will be the usual train wreck Twitter tweets and public comments. For sheer understanding the nature of their business, the MLBPA, and the NFLPA are light years ahead.
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