EUROPE
Brussels blog round-up for 27 July – 2 August – Europp
/ LSE
Berlusconi’s appeal
fails, France keeps up austerity pressure, and greater transparency for the ECB?
Time for EU to work without IMF help – Presseurop
“Time for Europe to shoulder burden of its own
problems” writes the Financial Times in an editorial
The Dutch and the EU: A founding member’s
apostasy – The
Economist
Charlemagne: Vamos a la playa – The
Economist
Inspecting euro-zone banks: Make or break—or
fudge – The
Economist
EU Crisis Roadmap: Key Milestones Ahead – MoneyBeat
/ WSJ
European Pundits Starting to Give Up on the
Eurozone – naked
capitalism
Unemployment rate in
2012 by citizenship – DB
Research
(it seems this has been removed)
Low levels of trust in political institutions – DB
Research
The latest
Eurobarometer shows that the citizens of the European crisis countries have
very little trust in their political systems and political institutions.
GERMANY
The German election: An unforeseen controversy – The
Economist
Unsealed confidential British documents reveal that in 1982, German
Chancellor Helmut Kohl tried to carry out a radical plan. He wanted to reduce
the number of Turks living in Germany by 50 percent within
four years.
Kohl Defends Plan to Halve Turkish Population – Spiegel
After the discovery of
previously unseen documents, former Chancellor Helmut Kohl has confirmed that
in 1982, he had a plan to drastically reduce the number of Turks living in Germany. But according to a statement released by his
office on Friday, the policy reflected wider debate at the time.
ECB
Decisions taken by the Governing Council of the
ECB – ECB
PIIGS
Ambrose
Evans-Pritchard: These nations will remain trapped in slump and mass
unemployment until they take matters into their own hands, form a debtors
cartel, confront the head-on gunboat creditors from a position of strength, and
dictate the outcome. But first they have to defenestrate out their own cowed
elites.
IMF's Lagarde has no doubts about European debt
relief for Greece – ekathimerini
Colpevole: Supreme
Court had bad news for Berlusconi (and the Italian government) – Open
Europe
Spain: 2013 Article IV Consultation – IMF
Spain: Selected Issues – IMF
UNITED STATES
S&P 500 Profit Margins Plunge To Three Year
Lows – ZH
Correlation Collapse Cause For Corrective Concern – ZH
Intra-stock
correlation of the top 50 market cap names has plunged in the past month…As
performance issues have forced some investors into higher beta areas in order
to boost outcomes
Citi: "Be Careful Of The Big Con" – ZH
Consumer confidence’s
worrying pattern.
Structural Humbug – Krugman
/ NYT
Conventional wisdom
has clearly swung to the view that our high unemployment is “structural”, not
something that could be solved simply by boosting demand.
FEDERAL
RESERVE
QE3: the act of doing the same thing and
expecting different results – Sober Look
When The "Market" Thinks The Taper Will Begin? – ZH
50-50 Dec, early 2014.
The Fed chair needs to be politically
independent. On that front, Yellen wins. – Wonkblog
/ WP
Do you trust Larry Summers or Janet Yellen to
police Wall Street? – Wonkblog
/ WP
The Race For The (Fed) Throne - An Update On
The Nominees – ZH
OTHER
Global Outlook: The Power of Money – Berenberg
(pdf)
2013 Pilot External Sector Report – IMF
2013 Pilot External Sector Report - Individual
Economy Assessments – IMF
2013 Spillover Report – IMF
2013 Spillover Report - Analytical Underpinnings
and Other Background – IMF
A sobering scatter plot – Sober Look
Non-financial credit
growth vs. investment growth across a number of nations. When credit growth
significantly outpaces investments into the economy, a nation could be in for a
deleveraging period.
How have financial markets reacted to
financial-sector reforms after the crisis? – voxeu.org
Lax financial-sector
regulation was the fulcrum of the Global Crisis and policymakers reacted by
introducing sweeping reforms. But has it had any impact? This column reviews
evidence from bank stock returns showing that four major reforms in the US and
Europe have reduced bailout expectations – especially for systemic banks. The
strongest effects were found for the Dodd-Frank Act (especially the Volcker
rule); the German restructuring law had little effect.
Hedge funds after SAC: Edge fund – The
Economist
Fabulous Fab Verdict: Jury Finds Liable For
Securities Law Violations – Huffington
‘Fabulous Fab’ Tourre - why is he the only one
paying a price? – Wonkblog
/ WP
Former Trader Is Found Liable In Fraud Case – DealBook
/ NYT
Did Goldman Sachs Overstep in Criminally
Charging Its Ex-Programmer? – Vanity
Fair
A month after ace
programmer Sergey Aleynikov left Goldman Sachs, he was arrested. Exactly what
he’d done neither the F.B.I., which interrogated him, nor the jury, which
convicted him a year later, seemed to understand. But Goldman had accused him
of stealing computer code, and the 41-year-old father of three was sentenced to
eight years in federal prison. Investigating Aleynikov’s case, Michael Lewis
holds a second trial.
US regulators 'find evidence' of banks fixing
derivative rates – The
Telegraph
US regulators have reportedly been handed evidence that traders at some of
the world’s biggest banks manipulated a key rate for derivatives, pocketing
millions at the expense of pension funds in the process.
The legal jujitsu of Goldman Sachs – Felix
Salmon / Reuters
OFF-TOPIC
XKeyscore: NSA tool collects 'nearly everything
a user does on the internet' –
The
Guardian
XKeyscore gives
'widest-reaching' collection of online data * NSA analysts require no prior
authorization for searches * Sweeps up emails, social media activity and
browsing history
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/jul/31/nsa-top-secret-program-online-data
Little Wars: How HG Wells created hobby war
gaming – BBC
It is a century since
HG Wells published the first proper set of rules for hobby war games. There's a
hardcore of gamers who are still playing by his code.
Pacemakers, Cars, Energy Grids: The Tech That
Should Not Be Hackable, Is – Minyanville
While laptops and Web
services remain the most popular targets for cyber attacks, hackers are
gradually turning to life-critical devices and systems.
Humans Are the World's Best Pattern-Recognition
Machines, But for How Long? – Big
Think
Book Bits | 8.3.13 – The
Capital Spectator
Sisäistä sisäinen devalvaatio – Henri
Myllyniemi / US Puheenvuoro
Rauhanindeksin mukaan kapina syrjäyttää sodan – Tieto
& Trendit
Maailman
rauhanindeksin mukaan ihmisten välinen vihanpito ja epäluulo ovat lisääntyneet
ja konfliktit ovat yhä useammin valtioiden sisäisiä. Indikaattorin tiedot
antavat aihetta pohtia, miten sisäisen rauhan turvaamisen laita on esimerkiksi
EU:ssa
Vasemmistolainen
ja oikeistolainen politiikka nykyisin – taidan kaivata vanhaa
tulonjakotaistelua ja todeta olevani äärioikeistolainen – Tyhmyri
Kuka
tarvitsee demareita? – Talouden
Tulkki
Pääkirjoitus
3.8.2013: Snellmanin perintö on murentumassa – IL
Vuokrat
nousivat 3,6 prosenttia vuodessa – Tilastokeskus