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European Central Bank President Mario Draghi called on European politicians to come up with a vision for the euro zone for the years ahead to better tackle the region's debt crisis and to restore confidence, with greater centralization of financial sector regulation as the first possible step. "The sooner the vision is clarified the better for the European Union," Draghi said Thursday at a hearing in front of the European Parliament's Committee of Monetary and Financial Affairs. More centralized banking supervision is necessary for large banking groups that are systemically significant for the financial sector of a country, he said....

The European Central Bank has stopped monetary policy operations with some Greek banks as they have not been successfully recapitalised, euro zone central bank sources said on Wednesday. The ECB declined to comment. The ECB only conducts its refinancing operations with solvent banks. With no access to ECB funds, the banks concerned must go to the Bank of Greece for emergency liquidity assistance (ELA).

Apparently, Prime Minister Rajoy is watching the Greek Debt Tragedy carefully and learned that the “cure” can be worse than the illness. Spain’s debt auction was a massive failure. Each of the PIGS (Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain) saw large spikes in their 10 year Sovereign bond yields. The news for Spain is not good. Real GDP is falling, unemployment is at 23%. And other Eurozone countries aren’t doing so well either. I was on CNBC’s Squawkbox (Asia) last night discussing Spain and the ECB’s actions. I did say that Spain is a ticking bomb waiting to detonate. And you...

Cue the fireworks in 3...2...1... FRIEDEN EUROPEANS CAN'T DO MUCH FOR GREECE BEYOND AGREEMENT - BBGFRIEDEN: GREECE NEEDS STRUCTURAL REFORMS, SHORT-TERM FINANCING - BBGFRIEDEN: GREECE HAS HISTORY OF PROBLEMS IMPLEMENTING DECISIONS - BBG And... drumroll please: FRIEDEN SAYS HE WISHES U.S. MORE INVOLVED IN STRENGTHENING IMF - BBG Translation: Hey America, we've done all we can, now it's your turn to sustain the Ponzi. Because if we go, you go.The upside: think of just how much faster the latest and gratest $16.4 trillion debt target will be breached if America simply issues Greek bonds with a US guarantee. Like...

This is a google translate translation: Ministers participating in the "great train robbery" First registration: Tuesday, February 7, 2012, 16:28 The legal use Katsios was perfectly clear, speaking Tuesday at noon in Makis Triantafyllopoulos and zougla Radio . In the circuit of corrupt government officials, tax collectors, managers and auditors of SDOE various institutions involved and politicians. The new element, however, that makes the difference is that between those policies, are ministers. The scam is repeated over time and after the introduction of Value Added Tax in 1987, namely how the circuits set up the "Great Theft of the Nation"...

The sum of overnight deposits at the European Central Bank (ECB) is often considered to be an indicator of the level of fear brewing within the financial sector. The greater the degree of distrust between banks, the more money banks tend to deposit on a daily basis with the ECB, where interest rates are low, but deposits more secure. This week has seen the level of deposits at the ECB's overnight facility rise to close to €412 billion ($538.4 billion)—the greatest amount seen since the euro's introduction, and representing a single overnight increase on Monday of €65 billion. The previous...

And not only through high taxes.Back in June, Princeton professor of economics Alan Blinder wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed mocking what he called “The GOP Myth of ‘Job-Killing’ Spending.�  It stuck in his craw that Republicans were saying spending itself was damaging to the economy, not merely the taxes necessary to finance all that spending.  He applied a thick layer of sarcasm to the topic:It was the British economist John Maynard Keynes who famously wrote that ideas, "both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed, the world is ruled...

CHICAGO PMI BEATS EXPECTATIONS: DOW NOW UP 375 Joe Weisenthal Nov. 30, 2011, 9:45 AM The good news keeps rolling in. The Chicago PMI came in at 62.6, well ahead of expectations of 58.5. The Dow is up 380 now. Stocks were already surging thanks to major central bank intervention, as well as a strong ADP number.

Jefferies strategist David Zervos is back again with new recommendations about how the U.S. could step in and save the global economy. This week: threaten complete disaster if EU leaders don't act right away. Akin to what he said about the matter last week: The game in Europe is as we have described many times before - the Germans want budgetary control throughout all of Europe and the rest of EMU wants Eurobonds. Its a game a chicken with the entire global financial system on the line. The US should not allow itself to become a casualty in this Euro...

Here's Whats Going On With The Report About Siemens Withdrawing €500 Million From SocGen And Depositing It With The ECB Mamta Badkar Sep. 20, 2011, 9:29 AM There's been a lot of confusion about Siemens fund deposit with the European Central Bank (ECB). The Financial Times reported that Siemens withdrew more than €500 million from a large French bank two weeks ago and deposited it with the European Central Bank (ECB). Siemens has since denied the claim and claimed the report was 'factually incorrect'. Instead Siemens is said to have moved an unspecified amount from Societe Generale in mid-July, before...

Der Spiegel says:It's official: Jörg Asmussen, State Secretary, Federal Ministry of Finance, will succeed Jürgen Stark as chief economist of the European Central Bank. Diesen Vorschlag hat Wolfgang Schäuble dem Euro-Gruppen-Chef Jean-Claude Juncker unterbreitet. This proposal was Wolfgang Schäuble the euro group chief Jean-Claude Juncker presented...Asmussen was willing to assume the position on the Governing Board and assured them he would do everything possible to ensure the stability of the euro-zone. Asmussen: "willing to assume the position." Definitely looks like the type.

We briefly recap, for your convenience: Item: Dominique Strauss-Kahn is temporarily and falsely accused of sexually assaulting a hotel "maid" in New York City. "DSK" is eventually released, but not before being summarily removed as head of the International Monetary Fund. Item: Christine Lagarde, top Chicago labor/antitrust lawyer, finds herself in charge of the global monetary authority. Item: DSK is on record against using the IMF "as a fist" to bully nations (such as Iceland or perhaps Germany) into making loan guarantees. Lagarde gives no indications of suffering any such scruples. Item: At the annual Jackson Hole Fed Economic Summit,...

No sooner does former top Chicago labor/anti-trust lawyer, now IMF head Christine Lagarde instruct "the US and Europe to abandon fiscal austerity and switch to stimulus measures" than European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet echoes her, saying...threats to the euro region have worsened and inflation risks have eased, giving officials the option to take further action should the debt crisis worsen... We paraphrase ourselves because the eggheads at these central banks have been paraphrasing Christine Lagarde since she issued the marching orders to the world's two economic powerhouses from Jackson Hole. Falling right in behind, Chicago Fed president Evans has...

“The austerity plan is in chaos. It is time to go back to the drawing board” remarks La Repubblica in its report on the measures announced less than a month ago by the Italian government. As the daily points out, at the time Italy was the target of speculative attacks on the sovereign debt market which threatened to scupper the euro if nothing was done to quickly reassure investors. However the plan that was supposed to rein in Italian debt (which is the second highest in the world when evaluated on the basis of a percentage of GDP) within reasonable...

Mrs Merkel has cancelled a high-profile trip to Russia on September 7, the crucial day when the package goes to the Bundestag and the country's constitutional court rules on the legality of the EU's bail-out machinery. If the court rules that the €440bn rescue fund (EFSF) breaches Treaty law or undermines German fiscal sovereignty, it risks setting off an instant brushfire across monetary union. The seething discontent in Germany over Europe's debt crisis has spread to all the key institutions of the state. "Hysteria is sweeping Germany " said Klaus Regling, the EFSF's director. German media reported that the latest...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel no longer has enough coalition votes in the Bundestag to secure backing for Europe's revamped rescue machinery, threatening a consitutional crisis in Germany and a fresh eruption of the euro debt saga. Mrs Merkel has cancelled a high-profile trip to Russia on September 7, the crucial day when the package goes to the Bundestag and the country's constitutional court rules on the legality of the EU's bail-out machinery. If the court rules that the €440bn rescue fund (EFSF) breaches Treaty law or undermines German fiscal sovereignty, it risks setting off an instant brushfire across monetary union....

Political dithering and rumour-mongering have caused dramatic falls in global markets. Fiscal integration will be necessary if the euro is to survive the storm. And Angela Merkel is the only political leader who can make it happen, says ABC's editorial. Público (Madrid) : "Now it's France's turn" ; De Morgen (Brussels) : "The eurozone shakes" Die Presse (Vienna) : "France fears for AAA rating" The period of calm which followed the European Central Bank’s intervention on Monday did not last long. On 10 August markets worldwide were swamped by an unprecedented wave of panic, whose like has not been seen...

ECB says will "actively implement" bond-buying Sun, Aug 7 2011 By Paul Carrel FRANKFURT (Reuters) - The European Central Bank said on Sunday it would "actively implement" its controversial bond-buying programme to fight the euro zone's debt crisis, signaling it will buy Spanish and Italian government bonds to halt financial market contagion. After a rare Sunday night conference call, the ECB welcomed announcements by Italy and Spain of new deficit cutting measures and economic reforms as well as a Franco-German pledge that the euro zone's rescue fund will take responsibility for bond-buying once it is operational, probably in October. "It...

The ECB will hold on Sunday afternoon, a crisis meeting. Per Telefonkonerenz mit dabei: alle wichtigen Finanzminister und Vertreter der G7. By using this Telefonkonerenz: all major finance ministers and representatives of the G7. Themen: PIIIGS-Bonds und US-Downgrade. Topics: PIIIGS bonds and U.S. downgrade. Möglicher Finanzcrash am Montag. Update: G20 halten Krisenkonferenz bereits Samstag Abend (US-Ostküstenzeit). Possible financial crash on Monday. Update: G20 already hold emergency meeting Saturday night (Eastern time). - Michael Mross Interview mit Russia Today. - Michael Mross interview with Russia Today.

August 5, 2011 Euro Builder Ends His Career on a Bitter Note By JACK EWING FRANKFURT — Jean-Claude Trichet, the president of the European Central Bank, has spent much of his career building and defending the euro. But now, in a bitter twist, it looks as if his career may well end with the common currency in shambles. Mr. Trichet, 68, will retire at the end of October after an eight-year term. Yet markets are crashing, bond investors have turned on Italy and Spain, and it appears certain that when Mr. Trichet returns to civilian life on Nov. 1, the...

Two weeks after Zero Hedge readers were informed about it, slowly the sell side is coming to the realization that not only will the EFSF have to be expanded (that much was known), but that Germany, and specifically the outright economy, will be on the hook by an unprecedented amount of money. And expanded it will have to be: not by two, not by three, but by a cool four times, to a unbelievable €3.5 trillion which according to Daiwa's Head of Economic Research, Grant Lewis, is an act which will be necessary to convince financial markets of euro area...

Realistically, Italy is bound to default, but Spain may just get away without having to do so It is important to understand the different dynamics of the Italian and Spanish situations. We have modelled a ‘good’ outcome and a ‘bad outcome’ for both to see if they are likely to be able to stave off default, flexing growth rates and borrowing costs. For Spain, even the bad outcome has the debt GDP ratio remaining no higher than 75%. This depends, though, on the banks not being forced to take major capital losses on their property portfolios and therefore no additional...

Less than an hour ago, Larry Kudlow tweeted the following: "Sources tell me Italy has to restructure bonds.Deposit run on Italian banks.EU will have to mount Tarp rescue.Big stress on interbank loans." Basically, this is the worst possible combination for Europe which means that another bailout is not only imminent but has to happen tomorrow. Incidentally Reuters is reporting of an emergency meeting between Sarkozy and Merkel and Zapatero on "the markets" which can only mean damage control following today's disastrous Trichet performance. Too bad the markets won't buy it any longer absent some actual actions to back up the...

Inevitable Catastrophe: The Fruits Of Moral Hazard On A Global Scale Insulate participants from risk with policies like the Bernanke Put and you guarantee destruction of both the market and institutional legitimacy. Identify the common characteristic of these three statements: 1. The Federal Reserve will never let the stock market decline, i.e. the "Bernanke put" 2. The Chinese government will never let property prices decline 3. The European Central Bank will never let Greece default The answer of course is moral hazard: a person who is insulated from risk will have an insatiable appetite for risky bets because any gains...

Austrian economist Peter Schiff brings you up to date on Eurozone developments - Merkel caves on Greece taking the easy way out politically by agreeing to a bailout that does not put the prime burden on Greek creditors. He also gives a heads-up on the what he sees as the inevitable coming QE-3...more monetizing of US debt by the Fed.

Inquiring minds are reading a post from Steen Jakobsen, Chief Economist at Saxo Bank in Denmark. Please consider Steen's Chronicle: Consensus, buying time aren't acceptable There are three major themes this morning: the election in Portugal, Greece bail-out Part II, and confirmation of slowing US growth. Portugal On the surface, the Portuguese election looks like a victory for change as the Social Democrats (PSD) secured 30 per cent of the vote and appear to have a solid majority of 126 seats in the 230-seat Parliament with the support of the Conservative Popular Party. The new prime minister, Passos Coelh, has promised...

The ECB’s stealth bailout Hans-Werner Sinn 1 June 2011 The Eurozone crisis lingers on. This column argues that the Eurozone payments system has been operating as a hidden bailout whereby the Bundesbank has been lending money to the crisis-stricken Eurozone members via the Target system on the order of €300 billion. Urgent corrective action is needed, the author argues, as the scope for this sort of transfer is limited. If markets sense the end of the line, the Eurozone may face a crisis like the one Britain faced in 1992. The parliaments of the Eurozone struggle to find an agreement...

The cabinet feels powerless, with its every decision overseen by Brussels, Washington and Frankfurt, and the government is under pressure to squeeze more and more cash out of the people The Irish political system may be in a state of flux, but the dividing lines in the 31st Dáil are becoming clearer. So are the tasks facing the new government. Though the general election returned a more fractured and disparate Dáil than ever before, recent events and debates have displayed that there are essentially two competing analyses of Ireland’s current fate, and two suggested responses. The first is the grin-and-bear-it...

The European Central Bank (ECB) has announced the possibility of an increase in their interest rate in April. This action is being taken preemptively to slow their rate of inflation. What are the consequences in the United States: The Euro has risen 0.5% against the US dollar on this news. Further weakening of the dollar will occur based on the amount of the increase(s). Investors around the world will put their money into European bonds/accounts instead of US Treasury bonds. As investors flee US Treasury bonds, the Federal Reserve must raise the interest on our bonds in order to be...

Stocks were up more than 2% Wednesday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average ($INDU) holding a 200-point gain as an increase in private-sector employment and speculation that the European Central Bank will enact measures to contain the eurozone debt crisis when policymakers meet Thursday. At 1:16 p.m. ET, the Dow was up by 254 points, or 2.3%, at 11,260. The S&P 500 ($INX) was gaining 27 points, or 2.3%, at 1,207, and the Nasdaq ($COMPX) was ahead by 59 points, or 2.4%, at 2,557. "The market was slated to open higher on two factors: China’s manufacturing sector grew and we...

Ireland is teetering on the edge as their budget woes appear insurmountable and bond yields and credit spreads blowout to new highs. It looks increasingly likely that Ireland will have to tap into the EFSF. Angela Merkel, however, is not prepared for taxpayers to take all of the losses: It’s a sad state of affairs when a foreign central bank and German Chancellor decide the fate of the Irish people, but this is the mess that single currency systems create. Quite honestly, it’s shameful that Irish politicians would even allow such a thing to occur. They have ceded their monetary...

Ultra-loose monetary policies by the Federal Reserve and the European Central Bank are throwing the world into "chaos" rather than helping the global economic recovery, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz said on Tuesday. A "flood of liquidity" from the Fed and the ECB is bringing instability to foreign-exchange markets, forcing countries such as Japan and Brazil to defend its exporters... "The irony is that the Fed is creating all this liquidity with the hope that it will revive the American economy," Stiglitz said. "It's doing nothing for the American economy, but it's causing chaos over the rest of the world....

The euro is rallying of late on the heels of some okay debt auctions in Ireland and Portugal. They've been nothing to write home about -- the yields are still sky high -- and the ECB has been very active in the debt markets of late, which further undermines the idea that all is clear. So you have this seeming paradox of the euro rallying (it's almost at $1.34) while the ECB is expanding its balance sheet and printing more euros to cover various sovereign debt auctions. But actually this isn't that weird. We predicted this would happen at the...

LONDON—Moody's Investors Service cut Portugal's sovereign-debt rating by two notches to A1 with a stable outlook early Tuesday, citing the government's weakening financial strength and meager economic growth prospects. The ratings agency said the continued deterioration in Portugal's debt situation suggests the government's financial strength will continue to weaken in the medium term.

A Failed Debt Auction Proves That The ECB Is Being Ridiculously Dumb Joe Weisenthal Jun. 29, 2010, 7:42 AM Sorry, but it's becoming more and more obvious that the crisis in Europe is a major referendum on the ECB. First, there's this Spanish bank liquidity issue. Basically, the ECB is withdrawing what appears to be a key source of support, at what seems like the worst possible time. And then there's the fact that while the ECB is buying PIIGS sovereign debt, it's also "sterilizing" the purchases with asset sales, But why is it doing this? What possible justification does...

Spain's Banks Are Freaking Out As The ECB Is About To Take Away Their Liquidity Pump Gregory White Jun. 28, 2010, 5:05 PM Spain's banks are freaking out right now about the possibility that the ECB might take away its €442 billion funding facility, according to the FT. The ECB's plan to allow the funding facility to expire have been labeled "absurd" by Spanish banks lobbying for its continuation. You can see what Spanish banks are worried about. Here's a chart detailing the liquidity drop off if the ECB allows the fund to expire on July 1. From FT Alphaville:...

Bob Janjuah: This Recovery Is a Joke, And The ECB Can't Be Trusted Gregory White Jun. 4, 2010, 12:41 PM Bob Janjuah was on CNBC Europe (via Zero Hedge) this morning discussing the realities of the European sovereign debt situation and how the threat is metastasizing to banks. He also said that the ECB can't be trusted like it was before, as it is now no different in how it will spend to the U.S. Fed. Janjuah was on the war path, broadly targeting the global recovery, and how, outside New York and L.A., the U.S. isn't pretty.(click to the...

The ECB Will Only Exacerbate Upcoming Deflation By Fighting The Wrong War Vincent Fernando, CFA May 31, 2010, 7:36 AM While ECB president Jean-Claude Trichet remains concerned about maintaining his inflation-fighting credentials by, there are some who believe he's fighting the wrong battle. The ECB has been buying government bonds in a bid to bring down European sovereigns' interest rates, but in order to 'mop up' the liquidity this creates, the central bank has been taking short-term deposits from banks in an equal and countervailing amount. This has meant that the net new liquidity from these measures has been zero,...

BofA's Rosenberg: Expect German Reprisals When They Realize What Trichet Is Doing At The ECB Joe Weisenthal May. 18, 2010, 9:29 AM A lot of folks are calling out ECB chief Jean-Claude Trichet for his claim that buying European government debt on the secondary market is not the same as quantitative easing. Yesterday John Hussman called him out, noting that despite plans to "sterilize" the purchases by withdrawing liquidity, there's still the phenomenon of rotating the ECB's balance sheet away from healthy debt to toxic debt. BofA's Jeffrey Rosenberg (via ZeroHedge) sees the same thing: We believe undermining the Euros...

Trichet: economy in deepest crisis since WWII Sat May 15, 6:51 am ET BERLIN – The President of the European Central Bank is quoted as saying that he still sees Europe's economy in its deepest crisis since World War II or even World War I. German News weekly Der Spiegel on Saturday reported that Jean-Claude Trichet said that since the beginning of the financial crisis in 2008 "we have experienced and we are experiencing really dramatic times."

The European Central Bank risks irreparable damage to its reputation by agreeing to the mass purchases of southern European bonds in defiance of the German Bundesbank and apparently under orders from EU leaders. the two German members of the ECB's council voted against the move, a revelation that may cause a catastrophic political backlash in Germany. Axel Weber, ultra-hawkish head of the Bundesbank, told Boersen-Zeitung that the emergency move over the weekend had been a mistake. "The purchase of government bonds poses significant stability risks and that's why I'm critical of this part of the ECB's council's decision, even in...

Tonight's Real Bombshell: ECB Will Begin Quantitative Easing Joe Weisenthal May. 9, 2010, 9:22 PM Image: Markusram on flickr Amazingly, a €720 billion Eurozone bailout may not be the biggest news to come out of Europe tonight. Bigger, perhaps, is the fact that the ECB will begin buying securities on the secondary market -- quantitative easing -- according to Olli Rehn, EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner (per Bloomberg). On Thursday, Jean-Claude Trichet's seeming unwillingness to make this step was likely a contributor to the big tailspin. Apparently he's seen that he can't afford this. Also: ECB independence is now dead. For...

European Stocks Halt Sharp Sell-Off; Eyes On ECB Thu May 6, 2010 6:54am EDT StocksBy Blaise Robinson * FTSEurofirst 300 up 0.6 pct, halts sharp 3-week retreat * BNP Paribas's stellar results help support banking stocks * Alcatel tumbles after posting wider loss * For up-to-the-minute market news, click on [STXNEWS/EU] PARIS, May 6 (Reuters) - European stocks moved higher around midday on Thursday, as BNP Paribas's (BNPP.PA) stellar results helped the market halt a sharp sell-off sparked by escalating fears that Greek debt woes spread to other euro zone countries. Mining shares, recently hit by worries over Australia's new...

Aha! Today The ECB Announces The Real Greek Bailout, And It's The Nuclear Option Joe Weisenthal May. 3, 2010, 5:51 AM This weekend we got details of an EU/IMF bailout agreement for Greece that basically involves big loans in exchange for big tax hikes and government spending cuts. The market was not all that impressed. The euro, after perking up initially, promptly resumed its slide. However this news is a much bigger deal. According to Bloomberg, the European Central Bank has announced the indefinite suspension of Greek collateral limits--meaning, basically, that banks can use Greek debt of any quality as...

ECB keeps lid on Greek bond data By Gillian Tett Published: February 25 2010 20:33 | Last updated: February 25 2010 20:33 Somewhere in the bowels of the mighty European Central Bank, there is a number that many investors would give a lot of euros to see. It refers to the volume of Greek government bonds that are now sitting in the ECB’s coffers, after being lodged there by European banks through central bank repo operations. Sadly, the ECB considers this number far too “sensitive” to release, even after a delay. Nevertheless, as fears about sovereign risk rise, those hidden...

THE MANHATTAN DECLARATION and EVANGELICAL CO-BELLIGERENCE ...the ineffectual intersection of politics and faith     “The goal of both the church and the state is to advance the public good.” -Francis Beckwith     The ultimate goal of the church biblically is not the public good, but the glory of God in the proclamation and advancement of His gospel of sola fide. God, not the audience, is sovereign. The “public good” is political speak for tolerance. The gospel, however, does divide; it is a stumbling block, offensive and foolishness for those who are perishing.     Here we go...

Sept. 28 (Bloomberg) -- European Central Bank President Jean-Claude Trichet said it is “extremely important” to have a strong U.S. dollar.

Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, has rounded on his US critics over charges that he has been too cautious in the way he has handled the economic and financial crisis in the eurozone. He mounted the vigorous defence at the annual symposium organised by the Kansas City Federal Reserve at Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where the policies of the world's major central banks, the ECB, the US Federal Reserve and the Bank of Japan were examined by economists. The critics included Nouriel Roubini, the New York University professor credited with forecasting the crisis. They accused Mr Trichet and...

ECB staff to strike over pensions By Ralph Atkins in Frankfurt Published: May 24 2009 22:29 | Last updated: May 24 2009 22:29 Staff at the European Central Bank have called their first strike, in a protest over planned changes to their pension scheme. A 90-minute warning strike will take place on June 3, just as the ECB’s 22-strong governing council arrives in Frankfurt for its monthly interest rate policy-setting meeting. The ECB said it would ensure that essential central banking activities were maintained during the protest action. Staff at European institutions are generally regarded as enjoying good benefits as...

CBs And Other "Real Money" Had Enough? Oh oh...... From the forum, wire from Reuters claimed original source: 21. There apparently is a new wrinkle to the intermediation trade between buying from Treasury to sell to the Fed with real money, including central banks, now in on the act. Indeed, several Street sources relay central banks were aggressive offers into this morning's coupon pass, with one letting go of a large block of old 5-years. Other offers too are coming in from embedded Asian real money longs -- in the higher coupons -- also looking to sell size without unduly...