A little bit of good news on economic growth from the U.S. and retail sales from Germany. A little bit of bad news on jobs from both. Read more »
Germany
Let this be a lesson to anyone hoping to avoid a couple centuries in prison– nobody fucks with Jimmy Cayne’s roach clip and gets away with it! Read more »
For all their saber-rattling and bold talk about a fix to the problem of global financial risk, the Germans haven’t done a hell of lot to rein in their banks. There is, for instance, no Großdeutschesvolckerregierung. At least, not yet. Read more »
We have good news for those of you who do business with/in the Bundesrepublik: Angela Merkel is going to be re-elected.
We know that she’s no Paul Ryan, but compared to her opponent in September’s German parliamentary elections, she’s the second coming of Ronald Reagan. Happily for those who care, the German Socialists (can you believe they actually have a party that puts that word in their name?) have nominated for the Chancellery Peer Steinbrück, a man whose never run in an election he didn’t lose and whose suave handling of matters during his time as Merkel’s finance minister ensured that Europe’s approach to financial matters did not quite merit the lofty title of final solution.
For while Steinbrück did not coin the loving term “locusts” for hedge funds and private equity firms—the last man to lead the SPD to defeat at Merkel’s hands, Franz Müntefering, did—he certainly did his level best to extirpate the capitalist demon during his four years at Berlin’s FinMin. But fear not, the media assures. Not only is he 10 points back in the polls, but: Read more »
They’re gonna downgrade their outlook from stable to negative though, just in case. [WSJ]
Flailing Eurozone Countries Agreeing To Two Years Of Austerity Makes About As Much Sense To Nouriel Roubini As Him Agreeing To Go Two Years Without Getting Laid– Which Is To Say, NONE
By Bess Levin
Hand to god, he’d sooner die. Read more »
Greek President Karolos Papoulias slammed Germany’s finance minister for recent comments about his country as stalled bailout talks stoked tensions between Greece and the northern European countries funding its rescue. “I don’t accept insults to my country by Mr. Schaeuble,” Papoulias, who fought in the resistance against the Nazis during World War II, said in a speech today. “I don’t accept it as a Greek. Who is Mr. Schaeuble to ridicule Greece? Who are the Dutch? Who are the Finns? We always had the pride to defend not just our own freedom, not just our own country, but the freedom of all of Europe.” Papoulias’s comments came as Wolfgang Schaeuble and other European officials pushed Greece to gouge more cuts out of its budget to qualify for a new bailout that would stave off an economic collapse. Schaeuble today blamed Greece’s New Democracy party, the second largest, for holding up agreement on a new rescue package and his deputy, Steffen Kampeter, compared Greece to a “bottomless pit.” [Bloomberg]
Nikita Khrushchev, the former First Secretary of the Soviet Union, once remarked, “Berlin is the testicle of the West. When I want the West to scream, I squeeze on Berlin.” Given the EU’s current predicament, I find this statement prescient. But the people of Berlin could not care less about that predicament. In fact, most Berliners find Greece a bore and Portugal simply a destination for fast, easy women. So why am I so captivated by Chancellor Angela Merkel’s painful pandering and yet also sympathetic with Germany’s plight? Read more »
Angela Merkel Suggests Euro Bond Enthusiasts Go Back To The Kiddie Table– The Adults Are Talking Here
By Bess Levin
The euro area has to resolve “that the time of living above our means is over once and for all” and pursue debt reduction that will stretch over “many years,” Merkel said in a speech to members of her Christian Democratic Union late yesterday in Magdeburg, eastern Germany. While stepping up her rejection of a Greek default, she said that issuance of shared debt by euro countries isn’t the solution to the problem spilling from Greece, even though some may long for the “big bang” to end the debt crisis. “Whoever believes that has no clue about the economy,” she said. [Bloomberg, earlier, earlier re: kid tables]
More Germans Express Opposition To Financial Speculation; Views On Naked Mud Wrestling Unclear
By Matt Levine
Der Spiegel is nothing if not fair: after letting George Soros talk about dirty little Eurobonds last week, this week they gave space to those who think that people like Soros should be hunted with high powered rifles from airplanes: Read more »
The leaders of France and Germany disappointed financial markets Tuesday by ruling out issuing euro bonds to fix Europe’s debt crisis. Instead, they agreed to float proposals in September for a tax on financial transactions and push for closer joint governance of economic policy. Many experts say the only way to ensure affordable financing for the bloc’s most financially distressed countries would be for the euro area to issue joint eurobonds. But both French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said they believed euro bonds were not part of the solution to Europe’s debt crisis…Sarkozy and Merkel also proposed that all 17 euro zone countries commit to balanced finances and write that goal into their constitutional law by summer 2012. Among other measures announced, he said they would also seek to ensure better cross-border economic government for the euro zone via twice-yearly meetings of leaders and the creation of a two-and-a-half-year presidency to steer this forum. [CNBC, earlier]
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SoFi Answers the Call to Refinance Student Loans and Provides Unique Community Benefits
This is a guest post written by SoFi’s CEO, Mike Cagney.
CLICK HERE TO READ THE FULL ARTICLE
Recently, there’s been a lot of talk amongst leaders in Washington about how to improve the painful process of repaying student loans. At SoFi, we feel your pain and work hard to offer more flexible, more affordable options for our borrowers. One idea that’s getting a lot of attention is increasing the options for refinancing debt after graduation. The only lender currently focused on refinancing private and federal student loans is SoFi.
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In a recent article posted on MainStreet.com SoFi General Counsel Rob Lavet had this to say about SoFi’s ReFi products: Read more »
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