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Politics : President Barack Obama -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: RetiredNow who wrote (115232)	6/13/2012 6:20:18 AM
From: Road Walker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 149317

Rajoy Declares War on Central Bankers to Counter Crunch Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy said he’s going into battle against European officials led by the Bundesbank who are rejecting calls for the European Central Bank to buy debt from peripheral nations. Rajoy said he has written to European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and European Union President Herman Van Rompuy calling for measures to counter a shortage of credit that is “strangling” economic growth. “That is the battle we have to wage in Europe,” Rajoy told lawmakers in the Spanish parliament in Madrid today. “I am waging it.” The Spanish premier went on the offensive after a 100 billion-euro ($124 billion) rescue for the nation’s banks failed to quell bond market unrest that may be pushing the government toward its own bailout. Bundesbank board member Andreas Dombret this week said the ECB won’t buy more government bonds. “We have done our part,” Dombret said in a June 11 interview in London. “Now it’s up to the political leaders to deliver on the fiscal and structural policy side.” Spiraling borrowing costs and deepening recessions across southern Europe are opening divisions among EU leaders who face a series of hurdles in the coming days as bond investors question their ability to hold the euro area together. Italy is due to sell as much as 9.5 billion euros of bills and bonds at auctions today and tomorrow while auditors are due to report on the extent of Spanish banking losses from next week. Greek Vote Greeks will vote June 17 on whether to back Alexis Tsipras, who wants to scrap the austerity plan dictated by the EU and the International Monetary Fund as a condition of its bailout. New Democracy leader Antonis Samaras, who supports the bailout conditions, said backing Tsipras will see Greece effectively thrown out of the euro. Spain’s gross domestic product fell 0.4 percent from the year earlier period in the first three months of the year. The Italian economy shrank by 1.4 percent, Portugal’s output was 2.2 percent lower and Greece saw GDP plummet 6.5 percent. Mounting tensions were illustrated in the past two days when Austrian Finance Minister Maria Fekter made a prediction she then retracted that Italy would need “help payments.” Merkel’s Message “As I consider inappropriate the comments by the minister on the situation of another member state, I abstain from commenting on such remarks,” Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti told journalists yesterday in Rome. In Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and her Finnish counterpart, Jyrki Katainen, who both manage AAA rated economies, yesterday told southern European nations to keep implementing the austerity plans that have driven them into recession. They said Europe wasn’t ready for debt sharing through euro bonds. Introducing euro bonds “is putting the cart before the horse and absolutely leads us down the wrong road,” Merkel said. European leaders will see the risks of a euro breakup increase unless they can develop a plan for resolving the crisis, Fitch Managing Director Ed Parker said at an event in Oslo yesterday. “Euro-zone politicians need to take further steps forward to reduce the risks there and we think that further steps will be required in the area of public finances,” Parker said. “We believe Spain will miss its budget deficit targets again this year and next by a substantial margin.” The European Commission forecasts that Spain will post deficits of 6.4 percent of gross domestic product this year and 6.3 percent in 2013 even after unveiling 45 billion euros of spending cuts and tax increases. Rajoy’s aim is a deficit of 5.3 percent of GDP this year. To contact the reporters on this story: Ben Sills in Madrid at bsills@bloomberg.net; To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Hertling at jhertling@bloomberg.net Find out more about Bloomberg for iPad: m.bloomberg.com

To: RetiredNow who wrote (115232)	6/13/2012 2:40:15 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 149317

Today, Jamie Dimon was up in front of Congress. S. Brown, a dem, asked him why his bank pulled such a stunt, suggesting that the big banks need to be broken up. J. DeMint, an R, praised Dimon for making a profit last year despite the $2 billion loss and condemning Brown's comments re. breaking up the big banks. Brown supports Obama; De Mint supports Romney. Dimon was a friend of Obama's until Obama was too critical of the banks and WS. Tell me again why you are voting for Romney.