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Sunday, April 21

21st Apr - Weekender: Linkfest



Note the extensive specials: while the IMF/G20-meetings on the surface were dull, at least it looks like the austerity has been buried – but behind the curtains, and without any real action. Looks like Europe will not break up the eurozone (to facilitate exchange rate adjustments in order to alleviate competitiveness differences and debt burdens) or accelerate the drive to a transfer union – at least not before the German elections.


Previously on MoreLiver’s:

Current specials:

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EUROPE
Brussels blog round-up for 13 – 19 AprilEuropp / LSE
Reinhart and Rogoff’s mistake, Germany’s new anti-euro party, and how should citizens react to terrorism?

We must re-evaluate the European UnionTradingFloor
Lars Seier Christensen: In the Danish version of former Czech Republic President Václav Klaus' book 'Europe - The shattering of illusions' I wrote a postscript sharing my thoughts on the European crisis and the lessons to be learned.

[Analysis] In search of Europe's prophetseuobserver
Among other things, recent European politics has suffered from a shortage of prophets

Europe Fails to Learn the Lessons of HistoryBrade DeLong
Notes on Political Union for Barry Eichengreen's "Future of the Euro" Conference, as Delivered

Financial stability in Europe and the progress towards banking unionBIS (pdf)
Speech by Mr Jörg Asmussen, Member of the Executive Board of the ECB 18 April 2013.

Latvia and the euro: Baltic ambitionThe Economist

Jörg Asmussen – Eurozone cross-fire: the way out of economic recession - Assessment of a realist and a response to idealists and cynicsECB

And what took *you* so long, Fitch?alphaville / FT
The UK lost its second AAA rating on Friday night after Fitch cut its rating to AA+. The outlook’s stable. S&P is now the only one of the big three giving Britain a top rating.

France’s battered economyThe Economist
François Hollande’s cyclical troubles

Europe's cap-and-trade program is in trouble. Can it be fixed?Wonkblog / WP

Accepting FailureTim Duy’s Fed Watch
It is starting to look like European policymakers have given up trying.

Italy, Europe: Please Do Something!EconoMonitor
The solution would be for euro members to use the Emergency Liquidity Assistance (ELA) facility provided for under the statute of the European System of Central Banks (ESCB),  to undertake overt money financing (OMF) of government debt in order to finance tax cuts or new spending programs.

  BANKING
A Litmus Test for Banking UnionEconoMonitor

The Semantics of Banking UnionWSJ
Disagreement over who should pay for the restructuring of resolution of problem banks has produced diverging interpretations of what a "common" fund entails.

The future of Europe-wide stress testingvoxeu.org
Selective asset-quality reviews and a high degree of transparency would add credibility and reduce uncertainty. Europe-wide stress tests will need to focus on structural, cross-border, and funding-related issues.

  GERMANY
Stick with the Germans?Free exchange / The Economist
Mostof Germany's political leadership continues to state unwavering support for euro zone. And perhaps if push came to shove and an economy truly were on the brink of exit, the German government would accept quite significant sacrifices to forestall that possibility. One wonders, though.

Wolfgang Schaeuble in Washington: You Don’t Get EuropeWSJ
Three years and dozens of international summits into the euro zone debt crisis, Germany’s finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, seems to have come to Washington this week with a simple message: You still don’t understand Europe.

Merkel Needs Opposition Party Votes to Pass Cyprus BailoutMish’s
"The falling apart of CDU/ CSU and FDP coalition is beginning to show in all seriousness now. If Bundestag needs to vote one more time before the federal elections (i.e. on Slovenia, Spain, France), the Government might not make it."

Understanding German PoliticsMish’s

  PIIGS
Is popular support for the euro in
Greece finally about to wane?Open Europe
Public support for the EU drops by 16% in one month

The Stupid Cruelty of the CreditorMainly Macro
Why is this happening? Because the Eurozone governments that foolishly bailed out Greece after the crisis first developed in 2010/11 want all their money back.

Is the IMF turning bearish on Spain?Open Europe

Cypriot banks, the Pimco reportalphaville / FT

Slovenia Bailout Would Be Spanish-Cypriot MongrelView / BB


UNITED STATES
  STOCK MARKET
Are Earnings Expectations Realistic?John Mauldin / The Big Picture

Bottom-Line Average, Top-Line BadBespoke
A little over 200 companies have reported earnings so far this season, and as shown below, 58% of them have beaten consensus earnings estimates.  This is the exact same "beat rate" we saw last earnings season. Unfortunately, top-line revenue numbers haven't been pretty.

Warren Buffett, Jeremy Grantham, and John Hussman on Profit, GDP and CompetitionGreenbackd

  FEDERAL RESERVE
Fed's Bernanke sees no
U.S. inflation risks: NowotnyReuters
Bernanke told global policymakers he sees no risk to inflation in the United States, ECB Governing Council member Ewald Nowotny said on Saturday.

Baby it’s cold outside: monetary policy as outer wearMacroScope / Reuters

Fed's easy policies necessary as a parka in winter: KocherlakotaReuters
The Fed’s ultra accommodative policies will inevitably result in financial market instability for years but such risks are necessary to boost employment and inflation, a top U.S. central bank official said on Thursday.

Have the inflation-paranoid capitulated?alphaville / FT

Several Central Bankers Note Tapering Not a Done DealWSJ
Talk of tapering Fed bond buying has dominated the monetary policy debate over recent weeks. But over recent days, several central bankers have reminded market participants pulling back is not a done deal.

Hard Money Man: Paul Volcker’s EconomyBoston Review

Book Review: The Federal Reserve and the Financial CrisisCFA Institute

Historical Echoes: Fedspeak as a Second LanguageN.Y. FED


ASIA
Monitor - Japanese investor flowsDanske Bank (pdf)
A central market theme remains what the spill-over effect of the aggressive Japanese QE programme will be. It is still early days for the BoJ programme and it will take time before a clear pattern is established. Given the magnitude of the BoJ intervention, we expect it to have a positive effect on the European government bond market in coming quarters.

Japan's Inflation Propaganda And Why The BoJ Better Hope It's Not SuccessfulZH


EMERGING
Emerging Markets: What Has Changed?Marc to Market

Reasons behind emerging markets correctionSober Look

Brazil embarks on tightening campaignHandelsbanken


OTHER
On Japan’s widowmaker trade and Reinhart and RogoffCredit Writedowns
Major industrialized countries with nonconvertible fiat currencies i.e not using the gold standard or in the euro zone should take the right lessons away from the Reinhart and Rogoff study and from Japan’s experience.

When Safe Havens Become Bubbles In DisguiseAsia Confidential

Sovereign-debt markets: an illusory havenThe Economist

Buttonwood: Like chess, only without the diceThe Economist
It is hard to find economic explanations for gold’d sharp fall

Daily Notes: Inflation vs Deflation Trade, Earnings, Global Equities, Copper, Citi ESI, Technicals, Gold Miners...The Short Side of the Long

Before Housing Bubbles, There Was Land FeverShiller / NYT

Financial Stability MonitoringFED (pdf)
Systemic vulnerabilities arise from market failures that can lead to excessive leverage, maturity transformation, interconnectedness, and complexity. These vulnerabilities, when hit by adverse shocks, can lead to fire sale dynamics, negative feedback loops, and inefficient contractions in the supply of
credit. We present a framework that centers on the vulnerabilities that propagate adverse shocks, rather than shocks themselves, which are difficult to predict.

Optimal sovereign defaultBundesbank (pdf)
Deutsche Bundesbank Discussion Papers by Klaus Adam, Michael Grill

Financial Globalization and Monetary TransmissionSNB (pdf)
Swiss National Bank Working Papers by Simone Meier

On financial risk and the safe haven characteristics of Swiss franc exchange ratesSNB (pdf)
Swiss National Bank Working Papers by Christian Grisse and Thomas Nitschka

The Non-Secret of Our Non-SuccessKrugman / NYT
“We don’t fully understand what is happening in advanced economies.” Um, guys, that’s because you don’t want to understand.

What We're Reading ~ Hedge Fund Links 4/19/13Market Folly

Begging the long run question: inflation variability vs NGDP growth variabilityWorthwhile


OFF-TOPIC
Friday Flashpoints – Our Weekend Reading ListThe Diplomat
Every Friday, The Diplomat’s Harry Kazianis looks out across the net to find the best articles and analysis involving defense, strategic affairs, and foreign policy.

“Manufacturing Consent” 25 Years Laternaked capitalism


FINNISH
SAKSA
Saksa vaatii deflaatiota ja taloudellista tuhoa EuroalueelleTyhmyri
Kriisimaissa vielä poliittisesti hämmästyttävän rauhallista

Wolfgang Schäuble - mystinen hahmoHenri Myllyniemi / US Puheenvuoro


SUOMI
EU ja eduskunnan tahtoBrysselin Kone / YLE
Eduskunnan EU-sihteeristön päällikkö, valiokuntaneuvos Peter Saramo keskustelee siitä millä tavoin Suomen eduskunnan tahto vaikuttaa Brysselisä.

Mihin suuntaan EU:ta kehitetään?Brysselin Kone / YLE
Europarlamentaarikko Nils Torvaldsin mielestä EU:ssa on demokratiavaje. Parlamentilla ei ole sitä valtaa mikä sillä pitäisi olla. Komissio, joka hänen mukaansa on käytännössä virkamieshallitus, käyttää valtaa enemmän kuin virkamieshallitukselle demokratiassa kuuluisi.

Stubb tilasi vision nuorilta: Entistä tiiviimpi EUTalouselämä
Nuoret vaativat päätösvaltaa Euroopan unionille – Valtioneuvosto
Mikä EU:sta tulee isona? Nuorten näkemys EU:n tulevaisuudesta – Valtioneuvosto (pdf)
Nuorten näkemys EU:n tulevaisuudesta –videot – Vimeo

Hallituksen EU-linja hakusessaSampo Terho

Erkki Liikanen: Asuntojen lainakatto pitäisi säätää lakiinTE

Ykköshaastaja: Keskustan Juha Sipilä kurkottaa kohti pääministerin salkkuaTE

HS-selvitys: Putinin lähipiiri haalii omistuksia SuomessaHS
Useat Venäjän presidentin Vladimir Putinin lähipiiriin kuuluvat venäläistaustaiset vauraat liikemiehet ovat haalineet omistuksia Suomen talouselämässä. Liikemiesten omistukset kulkevat usein monimutkaisten veroparatiisijärjestelyiden kautta.

Miljonääri hankki kesäpaikan Haminasta veroparatiisin kautta – HS
Venäjän rikkaimmat veljekset – HS
Suomalais-venäläinen veroparatiisikuningas – HS

MUUT
Turha toivoa liikoja – Kiinan talousihme hiipuuJan Hurri / TalSa
Kiinan talousihme merkitsi vuosikaudet huimasti odotettua nopeampaa kasvuvauhtia. Seuraava yllätys on, kuinka nopeasti Kiinan kasvu hidastuu. Huikeaa kasvua jatkavat enää hukkainvestoinnit ja yhä huterampi velkarahoitus. Tämän kuplan puhkeaminen tuntuu aikanaan Suomessa asti.

Eurojohtajat pesivät Washingtonissa kasvojaan – TalSa
Euroryhmän Dijsselbloem: Pankkiunioni saa rikkoa EU-lakia tässä vaiheessa – TE
Johtavat talousmaat hoputtavat EU:n pankkiunionia – TalSa