Bloomberg:
- Monti Calls for More Crisis-Fighting Urgency in ECB Standoff. Italy’s Prime Minister Mario Monti warned of a potential breakup of Europe without greater urgency in efforts to lower government borrowing costs, as a standoff over European Central Bank help for Italy and Spain hardened.
- Merkel's Bavarian Allies Turn Critics on Anti-Crisis Measures. Chancellor Angela Merkel's Bavarian allies moved to the front line of German criticism of crisis-fighting efforts, berating Italy, Greece and the European Central Bank's plans to resolve the turmoil in the euro region. Separate members of the Christian Social Union, sister party to Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, called yesterday and today for Greece to be "cut free" from the euro, accused Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti of seeking to access German taxpayers' money branded ECB President Mario Draghi's bond-buying proposal a "violation" of the central bank's rules.
- Hollande Pushes Monti to Request Aid for Italy, Repubblica Says. French President Francois Hollande is pushing Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti to request aid from Europe’s bailout fund to help ease speculation among investors, Italian newspaper la Repubblica reported, without citing anyone. Hollande’s strategy, which also includes pressing Spain toward a request for aid, is designed to help protect France from market speculation, Repubblica said. Monti doesn’t like the idea of requesting aid and may speak today with European Central Bank President Mario Draghi, the newspaper reported.
- Europe’s Paralysis Fuels Erosion of Democracy in East. The European Union’s failure to resolve the euro crisis is hammering Greece, Italy and Spain. It’s also unraveling the weaker democracies of Eastern Europe. The most recent example is Romania, where a bare-knuckle struggle for power is under way, leading to a still unresolved referendum to impeach President Traian Basescu. Basescu is a political bruiser, but the rival who is trying to remove him, Prime Minister Victor Ponta, has trampled the separation of powers and inflicted real damage on the country’s fragile institutions, for example, firing the ombudsman and seizing powers from the courts and parliament.
- Standard Chartered Faces N.Y. Suspension Over Iran Deals. Standard Chartered Plc (STAN) conducted $250 billion worth of transactions with Iranian entities over more than seven years in violation of federal money laundering laws, a New York regulator said in an order warning that its U.S. unit may be suspended from doing business in the state. Standard Chartered earned hundreds of millions of dollars in fees for handling transactions on behalf of Iranian institutions that are subject to U.S. economic sanctions, the Department of Financial Services, run by Benjamin Lawsky, said today. The London-based bank, which generates almost 90 percent of its profit and revenue in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, was ordered by the agency to hire an independent, on-site monitor to oversee its operations in the state. According to the order, when the head of the bank’s U.S. operations warned his superiors in London in 2006 that Standard Chartered’s actions could expose it to “catastrophic reputational damage,” he received a reply referring to the U.S. unit’s employees with an obscenity. “Who are you to tell us, the rest of the world, that we’re not going to deal with Iranians?” a bank superior in London said, according to the New York regulator’s order.
- Bank Loans at Post-Recession Peak. Banks in the U.S. are lending the most since the recession ended in June 2009, supporting an economy weighed down by 8.3 percent unemployment. Borrowing by consumers and businesses rose in the week ending July 25 to $7.1 trillion, within 2.9 percent of its October 2008 peak, according to Federal Reserve data. New lending for autos jumped to $134.3 billion in the first four months of the year, up 56 percent from the same period in 2009, according to credit bureau Equifax Inc. (EFX).
- Oil Tanker Losses Persist as Owners Contend With Vessel Surplus. Losses for oil-tanker owners hauling Middle East crude to Asia narrowed, amid an oversupply of vessels for loading in the Persian Gulf and few cargoes. Daily losses for very large crude carriers on the benchmark Saudi Arabia-to-Japan voyage shrank to $5,780, figures from the Baltic Exchange in London showed today. VLCCs were losing $6,356 a day on Aug. 3, exchange data showed. The ships were earning $41,093 daily at this year’s high in April. The VLCC fleet will expand 6.9 percent this year, above 4.7 percent demand growth, according to Clarkson Plc (CKN), the world’s largest shipbroker.
- China to Let Workers Choose for Wages to Be Paid in Stock. China plans to let workers choose for as much as 30 percent of their wages to be paid in the shares of their publicly-traded employers as regulators broaden measures to boost investor confidence in the stock market. The stock used to pay employees must be acquired from the secondary market, according to draft rules posted on the China Securities Regulatory Commission’s website yesterday. Employees who receive shares as salaries or bonuses would have to hold them for at least 36 months.
- Mursi Orders Army to Take Control of Sinai After 16 Killed. Egypt deployed helicopter gunships and an anti-terror team in north Sinai as President Mohamed Mursi ordered the military to take “complete control” of the region after unidentified militants killed 16 Egyptian soldiers. Mursi, drawn from the ranks of the Muslim Brotherhood, described yesterday’s attack on the troops as they broke their Ramadan fast as a “cowardly” act and vowed the assailants would “pay a high price, as would those who cooperate with them,” the state-run Middle East News Agency reported.
- Army Veteran Identified as Suspect in Sikh Temple Shooting.
- The Numbers Inside a Hot-Button Issue. Amid the Debate About Whether and How to Reform the Tax Code, a Look at How the Picture Has Changed.
CNBC.com:
Business Insider:
- Facebook's(FB) Stock Crash Has Created A Bunch Of New Problems For The Company...
- Crazy Details About The Bank That's Been Accused Of Transferring $250 Billion To Iran.
- Sean Penn Goes Campaigning With His Friend Hugo Chavez.
Zero Hedge:
- Why Europe Matters...
- Europe's Question Of Today: “If They Will Fund And How?”; The Question Of Tomorrow “Can They Afford It?”.
- Quarto Reich: Italy Goes "There" Again.
- Real GDP vs. Railcar Loads of Waste/Scrap. (graph)
- With Earnings Season Nearly Over 60% Of Companies Have Missed On The Top Line, Revenues Down 1% From Last Year.
- Obama associate got $100,000 fee from affiliate of firm doing business with Iran. David Plouffe, a senior White House adviser who was President Obama’s 2008 campaign manager, accepted a $100,000 speaking fee in 2010 from an affiliate of a company doing business with Iran’s government.
Reuters:
- Spyker sues GM(GM) for over $3 bln on Saab bankruptcy. Dutch sportscar maker Spyker NV is suing General Motors Co for more than $3 billion on behalf of its subsidiary Saab, accusing the U.S. automaker of deliberately bankrupting the Swedish group by blocking a deal with a Chinese investor.
- Egypt vows crackdown on "infidels" after border massacre.
Telegraph:
Der Spiegel:
- How the ECB Plans to Use Its Bazooka. The European Central Bank has come up with a new plan to buy the bonds of debt-ridden countries in a bid to fight the euro crisis. Under the new approach, the ECB would only intervene if governments commit to reforms. But experts criticize the plan as dangerous and undemocratic. The latest idea to rescue the monetary union threatens to turn into yet another flop. What Draghi presented last week was not a carefully prepared strategy, but a hastily negotiated compromise that satisfied no one. The plan doesn't go far enough for Southern European countries, while Jens Weidmann, president of the German central bank, the Bundesbank, voted against it, fearing for the ECB's independence. The plan does have its advantages, but because Draghi did such a poor job of selling it, the drawbacks are now its salient feature. The approach is poorly compatible with the central bank statutes, increases liability risks in the euro zone and places the monetary watchdog in a dangerous dual role. The ECB would become something of a secondary government in Europe while at the same time becoming more dependent on politicians. In the future, there can be no question of the ECB being a fiercely independent institution modeled after the Bundesbank, as it was originally intended to be. If Draghi prevails, the central bank will become a kind of adjunct to the European finance ministers, which could ultimately lead to higher inflation. "The ECB has a clear mandate to guarantee price stability," warns Jürgen Stark, a former member of the ECB Executive Board. "Every additional responsibility compromises this core function." With the Draghi plan, the Frankfurt monetary watchdogs are making a giant bet. For their plan to work, it is imperative that the Mediterranean countries recover economically in the coming years. If the desired turnaround does not materialize, the purchasing program will quickly reach dizzying proportions. The combined debt of Spain and Italy alone amounts to almost €3 trillion. It seems safe to predict that the ECB will hardly be a paragon of decisiveness in the coming weeks and months. According to one member of the ECB Governing Council who did not want to be identified, that will cause "plenty of frustration in the coming weeks."
- Indonesia to continue purchasing Iranian crude: Envoy. “Indonesia needs cooperation and trade transactions with Iran, the particularly oil purchase, and will continue this cooperation,” IRNA quoted Dian Wirengjurit as saying on Monday. He hailed Iran's advances in the fields of science and technology and voiced Indonesia’s willingness to use Iran's experiences in those areas.
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