This week…
Things in Turkey continued to be messy, as Erdogan’s stern view of protesters continues to spark new anger among the masses and sent the Turkish Lira falling. read Bloomberg
On Thursday, Erdogan re-iterated that he was losing patience with the protestors. Today, the government and its counter movement reached an agreement, while Germany delayed further EU accession talks with Turkey. read WSJ
In Greece, the doors of Hellenic Broadcasting Corp closed, sending 2,500 former employees out onto the streets. It is meant to be relaunched later this year in a slimmed-down version. read WSJ
In the UK, jobless claims dropped, suggesting that the recovery is well on its way (remember how we’ve been here roughly 700 hundred times now..?). read Bloomberg
And then there was Wednesday, when literally everyone with an audience called the bond bubble, for example Jim O’Neill (formerly of Goldman Sachs) and Bill Gross (Pimco)
Around the same time, Iraqi officials said the country was looking to increase its oil production by 29% in 2014 and 159% by 2020, showing that a) they can and b) they have buyers. read Emerging Frontiers
Then there was a new price fixing scandal [yes, there are still some products left]; this time in FX. read Felix Salmon
Meanwhile on Wall Street, notes on correlations with Japan: read WSJ
In Brussels, important issues like the size and curviture of bananas and cucumbers has been pushed aside as Washington’s lobbyists walked in to ensure EU privacy regulations wouldn’t get so strict that they could hurt US investigations overseas. read FT
Rupert Murdoch is divorcing Wendy Deng, could this be the actual reason for splitting News Corp? read New Yorker
The week ahead…
The G8 meet on the outskirts of London on Monday and Tuesday; anti-globalization protesters will ironically stick to central London, where they will follow a scavenger hunt-like course through the West end, mapped out here. Please refrain from buying condiments at Fortnum & Mason until the weekend, as you may otherwise be questioned about the social legitimacy of your job.
Otherwise, it’s going to be a Bernanke-dominated week – again – as the Fed is meeting and press conferencing. Although Bernanke tried to nullify the comments about an end of easing, saying that it would take “considerable” time until that would happen, everybody seems to think the US is going to turn the money tap off. read WSJ
Have a good one.
