Greece Bailout

Very good Bloomberg article explaining what went down & ideas about impact/future Eurozone fun (pullouts after the jump). Graphic from France 24 (along with another good article)

Germany to the rescue again? Telegraph UK editorial & BBC Article

Only Germany can save EMU as contagion turns systemic

Europe's leaders have finally run out of time. If they fail to agree on some form of debt pooling and shared fiscal destiny at Thursday's emergency summit, they risk a full-fledged run on South Europe's bond markets and a disorderly collapse of monetary union.

Although it seems like Germany has no interest in taking on more responsibility (BBC article)
(i.e. creating Eurobonds, bailouts, whatever) & maybe if Merkel's hands are tied then the Euro experiment is reaching an unfortunate conclusion?

check it:

UK hit by Eurozone Crisis

UK banks dragged into eurozone crisis as global markets take fright

Lloyds, RBS and Barclays take £5bn hit as stock and commodity prices plummet, while US urges Europe to be more decisive

Interesting b/c two days ago, zerohedge posted the Sigma X screen showing major action on Lloyds indicating a shift from Eurozone wackiness from Italy to UK.  Sigma X is the Goldman dark pool trading center.  Dark pools are trading centers where buyers/sellers are anonymously paired up & action happens outside the trading markets.  More info on this zerohedge post.

"Pointless Piece of Crap Story"

from wikipedia

debt ceiling graph

from the economist

...Congress has acted a total of 91 times since June 1940 to either raise, extend or alter the definition of the debt limit—36 times under Democratic presidents. And they have done so with some 300 days to spare on average...

Israel / Iran / U.S. Navy

CVN 77 G.H.W. Bush Enters Persian Gulf As CIA Veteran Robert Baer Predicts September Israel-Iran War

the naval update per Stratfor:

and here's the post from zerohedge:


As the most recently updated naval map from Stratfor demonstrates, the CVN 77 G.H.W. Bush has just entered the Persian Gulf, the first time a US aircraft carrier has passed through the Straits of Hormuz in months.

Gold matches record winning run on debt talk fear

Gains in crude oil, a plunge in U.S. consumer confidence and concerns about euro zone debt contagion also helped the metal to its largest two-week gain in over two years, rising more than 7 percent since the start of July.

Gold should rise to record highs above $1,700 an ounce in the next few months, based on technical charts. One analyst said that in theory, it could reach a shocking $5,000 an ounce should equity markets correct sharply.