The Automatic Earth

Adolphe-Alexandre Dillens – Capture of Joan of Arc The yields on Spanish and Italian 10 year bonds have been falling lately, though not by much (Update: they're rising again already, even with a "good“ Italian auction). Why? Mainly because the Eurozone promised to ship €30 billion to Spain's banks. And partly because Spain got another year's time to comply with EU budget demands. And also partly because Spain announced its (hard to keep count) fourth – restructured – austerity package

Barclays poster, Britain So far, everybody who's said anything about the Libor rigging affair appears to have been lying. And if Nouriel Roubini can call for "somebody hanging in the streets", I can at least call for all the Libor liars to go to jail for it. AND lose all their money, benefits, pensions, everything. And while we’re at it, why not also throw in jail anyone who suggests that Barclays "might not" have been the only bank rigging the

Image: chensonism.blogspot.com I was leafing through some recent Bloomberg articles and noticed this running thread connecting them: hubris, decisions based on false data, inertia, things like that. It wouldn't be hard to find dozens more pieces just like it in the press, but once you recognize the pattern, it stands out like a sore thumb anyway. It's pretty easy to see where mistakes are made, especially when they're big mistakes. David Fickling: Lend Lease Gets $2 Billion Funding For Barangaroo

Well, attention for the reality behind China's growth picture is finally heating up, and I would say that's definitely a good thing. It will allow everyone to take a second look and wonder what is real and what is not. It will also allow countries like Australia and New Zealand to rethink their all-out economic dependency on China. Not to mention Mongolia; Michelle Yun had this for Bloomberg: Mongolia Mining Bets China Will Double Coal Imports Mongolia Mining Corp. is