July 26th Early

Joke of the day: “Our goal is to return to positive growth and create primary surpluses by 2012” – Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos, Washington 25^th June via BB

Quote of the day: “Governments have fewer and fewer resources to shape outcomes, and through their policies may actually be making both the financial and the environmental credit crunch worse.” – Paul Donovan, global economist at UBS on FT

View: Somewhat surprised that the market attention to euro crisis is returning so fast. I believed U.S. would have been a show-stopper. Nevertheless, hire me.

EURO CRISIS

Summary of RBS’s research note. “rushed, insufficient info, nice tools but no firing power”

What’s wrong with Greece bailout II… – FT  

                     

Portugal and Ireland might face fast downgrading schedule around 2013.

For Greece alone – FT

UBS’s global economist interning at FT alphaville

[Paul Donovan] Why Germany and Greece are right to blame each other – FT

Greek FinMin states his goal is positive growth AND primary surplus by 2012.

Greece Says It’s Working With IMF, Hasn’t Requested for More Financial Aid - BB

Greece Still Faces High Debt to GDP Ratio: IIF's Dallara – CNBC

Italian banks have more PIIGS in their trading books while Spanish keep them elsewhere on balance sheet – Spanish are thus less susceptible  to mark-to-market losses.

Italian volatility, l’accounting differenza – FT

FINANCIAL CRISIS

Live Blog: The U.S. Debt Battle – WSJ

Increasing calls that missing the Aug 2^nd is not that big deal

Stretching the debt deadline – FT

Default by U.S. Can Be Avoided Until September, Silvia Says - Businessweek

How the Deficit Got This Big - NYT

The obvious compromise between the Reid and Boehner plans – Washington Post

“Global imbalances have little to say about the patterns of global intermediation behind the credit boom and the transmission of the turmoil or about the determination of market interest rates.”

The Definitive Chart Collection Of America's Bipolar [Non] Recovery – Zero Hedge

Focusing on saving-investment balances, current accounts and net capital flows does not work

Did global imbalances cause the financial crisis? – Borio & Disyatat via VOX

Deterioration in sovereign creditworthiness can damage bank funding conditions, banks can only do so much and that the policymakers have a critical role.

How does sovereign risk affect bank funding conditions? What can policymakers do? – Davies & Panetta via VOX

Good piece on ratings changes

Downgrade Jitters – The Aleph Blog

OTHER

Q2 results are out for UBS and DB (this includes a link to a previous DB entry)

Back to the drawing board at UBS – FT

Interesting paper for fund analysts: how to look at intramonth effects with only monthly returns

A Hedge Fund Risk Profile Changes As the Moon Waxes and Wanes – All About Alpha

EMERGING

Interesting, fresh way – author looks at the hits of his columns and notices that Turkey is getting more attention.

Turkey is getting on the markets’ radar – Deliveli via EconoMonitor

Earnings growth forecasts may be halved from 28% to 15%

China’s Stocks May Extend Worst Drop in 6 Months, UBS Says – BB

This is worth reading only for getting a good idea what the papers in the Middle Kingdom are worth.

GDP slower but better – China Daily

Guest Post: Was The Chinese Government Behind The Stock Rally? – Zero Hedge

It gets more absurd, but can reality be called absurd?

"Do Not Question" - Full Directive From China's Ministry Of Truth On High Speed Train Wreck Censorship – Zero Hedge

DIVERSION

People who have been out of work for more than couple of months in danger of becoming permanently umemployable

The Help-Wanted Sign Comes With a Frustrating Asterisk - NYT

On patent trolling

When Patents Attack – Planet Money

Social intelligence services used to dig dirt

That Tweet Just Doomed Your Wall Street Career: William D. Cohan – BB View