ShareIn my view, there is little chance the Germans are going to allow the EU to ride to the rescue of the Greeks. All of the bailout chatter does not really consider the domestic political constraints in Germany.
First, a bit of quick background.  Germany was traumatized by two world wars and an intervening period [...]

Share“We shall be as a city upon a hill. The eyes of all people are upon us.” –John Winthrop

Joe Biden is buying none of this America-as-an-empire-in-terminal-decline meme.  The Washington Post’s E.J. Dionne caught up with the Vice President on Tuesday to discuss the Obama Administration’s economic recovery plan.  Where he got most heated was in [...]

SharePaul Volcker is testifying before the Senate Banking Committee today on financial regulatory reform. Recently, the Obama introduced reform proposals inspired by Volcker and now being dubbed The Volcker Rule.
The Wall Street Journal has done a good job over the past two weeks of outlining the internal politics, details and potential effects of the Volcker [...]

ShareEdward Hugh here. This is a post which was originally published at A Fistful of Euros.
Well, the Spanish government are due to announce their 2009 fiscal deficit number this morning, together with their adjustment plan for reducing the annual fiscal deficit to below 3% of GDP by 2013. This rather distasteful news will be presented [...]

ShareHat tip Prieur du Plessis

Source
20 Jan 2010 editorial cartoon – Nick Anderson, Comics.com

ShareThe poll results are in on why President Obama has begun a ‘War on Wall Street.’ A majority of CW readers believe President Obama’s recent populist turn and harsh rhetoric directed toward Wall Street is a political stunt. And to the degree CW readers believe otherwise, they see the latest salvos as only a start. [...]

ShareI think Bernanke probably will still get through. Congress need sixty votes to remove a filibuster hold. Thereafter, they only need fifty votes to get Bernanke through. I suspect Obama will go to senators like Barbara Boxer and say:
Look, vote to remove the hold. Then you can vote against Bernanke for your constituents because [...]

ShareEdward Hugh here. This is a first post at Credit Writedowns, one which was originally published at A Fistful of Euros. Expect to see more content from me here in future.
The post title is the conclusion drawn – rather surprisingly – not by some bank analyst, or by a Credit Ratings Agency, but by the [...]

ShareThe Senate Republicans are making procedural maneuvers to delay the Bernanke confirmation for re-appointment as Fed chair (hat tip Marc Chandler).  There is talk of a filibuster being used as a tactic to squelch his nomination before his term expires at the end of the month.  The interesting bit is that Bernanke is a Republican [...]

ShareThat’s the gist of yesterday’s post by James Pethoukoukis.  The column says:
A historic victory, really. It is hard to overstate just how “blue” a state Massachusetts is. Obama won it by 26 percentage points in 2008. Until now the state’s 10 U.S House members, two U.S. senators and all statewide officers were Democrats. The state [...]