Sunday, May 24, 2015

Today's Headlines

Bloomberg: 
  • Varoufakis: Grexit Would Be Beginning of End for Euro Project. "Once you infuse into investors mind that the euro is not indivisible, it will only be a matter of time before the whole thing begins to unravel," Greek Finance Minister Yannis Varoufakis says on Sunday in interview on BBC's "Andrew Marr Show." "Once you are in a monetary union, getting out of it is catastrophic," he said. 
  • Biggest Debt Collector in Europe Says Crisis Rates Not Helping. The head of Europe’s biggest debt collector says the historic wave of stimulus spilling out of central banks has failed to fuel investment growth. Lars Wollung, the chief executive officer of Intrum Justitia AB, warned that record-low interest rates “don’t seem to lead to investments that create jobs,” in an interview in Stockholm. “A rate that is too low, or a rate that many of us have never experienced, is so extraordinary that it doesn’t create any stability or faith in the future at all,” he said. “Rather the opposite: one feels insecure and waits with expansion plans and to hire more people.”
  • Putin Signs Law Allowing Clampdown on Foreign NGO Groups. President Vladimir Putin signed legislation allowing prosecutors to deem foreign or global non-government organizations as “undesirable” in Russia, drawing immediate criticism from the U.S. and European Union. The prosecutor-general may assign the label to international NGOs that “threaten Russia’s constitutional order, defense potential or security,” according to the law signed last night. Such organizations lose rights to publish media materials, organize rallies and use local bank accounts.
  • Saudi King Vows to Punish Perpetrators of Mosque Attack. Saudi King Salman vowed to punish those responsible for a suicide attack on Shiite-Muslim worshippers, describing it as “heinous crime” that killed innocent people in the kingdom’s oil-rich Eastern Province. “Every participant, planner, supporter, collaborator, or sympathizer with this heinous crime will be held accountable, tried and punished,” King Salman said in a statement on the official Saudi Press Agency. “Our efforts will never stop at any time from fighting the deviant thought.”
  • Dubai Stocks Lead Mideast Declines as Real Estate Shares Drop. Real estate and construction companies dragged Dubai’s stocks to the lowest in five weeks as gauges across the six-nation Gulf Cooperation Council retreated. Dubai’s DFM General Index lost 1.7 percent to close at 4,049.98, pulled lower by a 2 percent decrease in the Dubai Financial Market Real Estate Index. Emaar Properties PJSC, the developer with the biggest weighting on the gauge, dropped the most since May 4.
Wall Street Journal:
  • Defense Secretary Opens Possibility to Strategy Shift on Iraq. Ash Carter’s gives withering critique of Iraqi defense forces over Islamic State’s capture of Ramadi. Defense Secretary Ash Carter held open the possibility of a strategy shift by the White House on Iraq, a few days after recent setbacks in Iraq and Syria revived sharp criticism of the Obama administration’s approach in combating extremist groups there. Islamic State forces last week captured the key Iraqi city of Ramadi and also expanded...
Fox News: 
  • Congressional Dems, Republicans agree Obama's Islamic State strategy is now, at best, stuck in neutral. Top congressional Democrats and Republicans agreed Sunday that President Obama is not winning the fight against the Islamic State, with one of his top House supporters acknowledging a “stalemate” at best. The criticism from Hawaii Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard was not unexpected following the Islamic State last week taking over the Iraq city of Ramadi, then pushing into the Syrian city of Palmyra. “Clearly ISIS has gained momentum … as we’ve seen the ground that they have gained both in Iraq and Syria,” Gabbard, an Army combat veteran who has criticized Obama for not calling Islamic State “Islamic extremists,” told CNN’s “State of the Union.”
ZeroHedge:
Business Insider:
Financial Times: 
  • China brokers’ capital rush fuels margin-fed rally. China’s brokers have raised more capital this year than in the past three combined — and more than half the $14bn proceeds are being ploughed straight back into financing the equity boom that enabled them to tap the markets in the first place. The frenzied rallies in Shanghai and Shenzhen this year have been largely fuelled by margin lending where loans to invest in the market are secured against the stocks purchased.
Telegraph: 
El Pais:
  • Summers Tells El Pais Spain to Be In Crisis Until End of Decade. Larry Summers, former chief economic adviser to President Obama, tells El Pais that Spain and the rest of the periphery of Europe will remain in crisis until the end of the decade. Summers says "flirting" with Greek exit involves taking on enormous risks.

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