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Saturday, March 17

17th Mar - Best of The Week

Here are the best links from my ending week's posts, in case you missed them. The Weekly Support and Weekender posts are coming up next.

EURO CRISIS: GENERAL
There Will Be Contagion – John Mauldin / The Big Picture
Sarkozy: Problem Solved, Or… Germany to Sarkozy: It’s Not Over · The ISDA Steps Up · No Winners in Ugly Greek Debt Deal, Only Lessons  · And By the Way, Close Your Borders ·
The Next Greek Tragedy · Orlando, Stockholm, Paris, and Staying Young


Portugal Gradually Shuffles Its Way Up Towards The Front Of The Debt Queue – Edward Hugh / EconoMonitor
9.3 billion euro bond redemption due in September next year and the despite initial Troika hopes, the markets remain closed…

Encumbrance 101, Or Why Europe Is Running Out Of AssetsZH
Barclays: Whether it be their direct actions with Greece (specifically subordinating the world) or their indirect actions with LTRO collateral needs, the systemic risk of Europe's banking/sovereign credit system is far higher now than it was before…

BIS Quarterly Review, March 2012 BIS
discusses global impact of European bank deleveraging. The March issue also provides highlights from the latest BIS data on international banking and financial activity. Press release here

Dear EBA, the central banks and emerging markets have got thisalphaville / FT
The central bank’s bank says those new European bank capital requirements DID dampen lending, prompt asset sales, and generally give everyone more to worry about in the past few months.

Is the Risk Free Status of Euro Area Sovereign Debt in Tatters?PIIE
Portugal: Another Program Is Likely ·  Ireland: Lingering Concerns Over the Seniority of Creditors · Greece: Fears of Another ‘Default’ · Euro Area: Markets and Political Leaders Misunderstand Each Other

SOVx Western Europe - And Then There Were 14...Macronomics
and next stop, Portugal

EURO CRISIS: ECB, LTRO, TARGET2
Why JPM Sees A "Lot More Printing" By The ECBZH
JPM: The ECB may need to print a LOT more…the net balance of payments in the periphery shows money flowing out and ECB financing covers these flows only partially. More will come.

Germany Turns Up Pressure on ECBWSJ
Growing more confident that the acute phase of the euro-zone debt crisis may be passing,
Germany is beginning to put pressure on the ECB to start mopping up the extra cash that it has flooded into European markets to stem the spread of financial contagion. h/t Alea

LTRO names n’ numbers, revisitedalphaville / FT
UBS: We (have) discussed…how usage approaching 10% of a bank’s funded book could represent a tipping point beyond which counterparties and investors would likely regard the bank as one unlikely to be run as a typical private-sector enterprise.

Is The ECB Masking Accelerating Deposit Flight In Italy And Spain?ZH
Spanish and Italian (SPIT) banks dominated the use of the ECB's LTRO facilities, while Finland/Germany/Luxembourg (FINGEL) banks took only modest amounts... but the rise in the ECB's deposit facility shows that FINGEL dominated the additions while SPIT increased only very marginally...

Zur problematik der TARGET2alphaville / FT
Bundesbank thinks Target2 is not problematic – unless the Eurozone breaks up

OTHER
Things that make you go hmmm... – Grant Williams via The Trader
Must-read report, discusses e.g. Spain in the EZ crisis. Full pdf

Global Imbalances and Social ChallengesLSE
From last June but just to advertise it again: Severino from French ministry of finance, and Wolf from FT, excellent lectures and debate, full audio, video and slide files.

A turn in the cycle?Buttonwood’s / The Economist
Are we witnessing one of those historic turning points in markets, on a par with March 2000 (when the dotcom bubble burst) or March 2009 (the post-Lehman low)?

The VillainThe Atlantic
The left hates him. The right hates him even more. But Ben Bernanke saved the economy—and has navigated masterfully through the most trying of times.

Ray Dalio: Man and machineThe Economist
The economic ideas of the world’s most successful hedge-fund boss

OFF-TOPIC
Bank of America: Too Crooked to FailThe Rolling Stone
The bank has defrauded everyone from investors and insurers to homeowners and the unemployed. So why does the government keep bailing it out?

The Man Who Broke Atlantic CityThe Atlantic
Don Johnson won nearly $6 million playing blackjack in one night, single-handedly decimating the monthly revenue of Atlantic City’s Tropicana casino. Not long before that, he’d taken the Borgata for $5 million and Caesars for $4 million. Here’s how he did it.