George Papandreou and Antonis Samaras reach agreement to form a grand coalition under a new prime minister; the goal of the interim government is to implement the eurozone agreement before elections, most likely in February; Lucas Papademos is considered as a possible caretaker PM; a majority of Greeks are in favour or remaining inside the eurozone; Silvio Berlusconi’s parliamentary majority is crumbing ahead of a crucial vote tomorrow; Bundesbank vetoes use of pooled SDR’s to co-finance the EFSF; Bundesbank suspects a plot by the ECB; Holger Stelzner writes that the debate about SDRs was an attempt to get at Germany’s gold reserves; Wolfgang Münchau says the G20 is useless, and as incapable of crisis resolution as the European Council; German coalition partners reach agreement on tax cuts; the French government presents an unlikely consolidation plan to impress the rating agencies; measures include higher VAT and an earlier than expected increase in the retirement age; a poll suggests that a majority of the French are hostile to further Greek aid; eurozone finance ministers, meanwhile, have agreed to speed up negotiations to lever the EFSF.It is easy to blame the crisis on the greeks and their alleged fondness for early retirement and long lunches; David Zervos from global securities trader Jefferies sees it differently
Bravo to Papandreou. He is peeling back the layers of the rotten onion that is EMU and exposing the Italian, French and Belgian situations for what they really are! I stand by the idea that the end game here is a Greek exit - and today's action gets us one step closer. Further, the turmoil in Italy and France gets us one step closer to a Eurobond that has Germany wrapping whatever remains of a tattered EMU. The EMU end game is German fiscal dilution and exit for the weakest links.It is worth noting that in an attempt to stop escalating rumours hastening their own endgame Jefferies have announced that they have reduced their exposure to the Eurozone to by 49.5% - the collapse of MF Global appears to have stimulated an unusual outburst of transparency.
To others this seems like a long but steady process
Even before the financial crisis, the volatility of economic fundamentals started to rise, caused by real economic shocks and partially by globalization. The eurozone was already diverging well before 2008. We thus argue that real, financial, and debt related fiscal policy integration is necessary and sufficient to save the Euro.Markets don't appear to have an interest in events beyond the 24-hour news cycle which, for some, presents opportunities
Nov. 7 (Bloomberg) -- Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. invested $23.9 billion in the third-quarter, the most in at least 15 years, as he accelerated stock purchases and broadened the portfolio beyond consumer and financial-company holdings....“He sees something, and it’s big,” said Thomas Russo, a partner at Berkshire investor Gardner Russo & Gardner...The last time Buffett invested more than $20 billion in a period was 2008 when he did it in both the second and fourth quarters of the year. Buffett deployed more than $70 billion that year, including $10.1 billion on stocks, as the S&P 500 posted its biggest decline since 1937. This year, Berkshire bought $11.4 billion of stocks in the nine months ended in Sept. 30, while selling $885 million of equities.
..“We’re ready to buy lots of things,” Buffett told Bloomberg Television’s Betty Liu on Sept. 30. “If the stock is cheap, we will buy it.”
