Free Republic

As I watch the latest polls from Germany there are numerous outcomes, none of which will be pleasing to chancellor Angela Merkel, except outright victory by CDU/CSU +- FDP. If anything but a CDU/CSU +- FDP majority happens, the chancellor will face seriously unwelcome choices. For example: Reader Bernd pinged me with this comment yesterday "I just watched the last TV discussion. SPD has made it clear that EUROBONDS will be part and parcel of the package, if they come in with a coalition. Merkel was dead set against those up to now. Grand Coalition ??" Indeed. Recall that Merkel...

The European Central Bank has failed to outright deny that a bold plan for the bank to bring eurozone government borrowing costs is in the offing. The Frankfurt-based bank said it was “absolutely misleading to report on decisions which have not yet been taken and also on individual views, which have not yet been discussed by the ECB’s governing council." But the statement implies that the idea to put caps on bond yields—reported in Germany's Der Spiegel—may yet be debated. According to the report, the bank is considering setting up country-by-country thresholds for sovereign bond yields, after which it would...

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...

German Chancellor Angela Merkel rejected a new push by the European Commission for bonds issued jointly by the 17 euro nations, saying Tuesday they wouldn't resolve the debt crisis and now is the wrong time to discuss them. She appeared to be joined in her resistance to immediate talk of so-called "eurobonds" by eurozone chief Jean-Claude Juncker and Herman Van Rompuy, president of the European Council, which is made up of the 27 European Union heads of government.