US Treasury May Issue Debt With a Floating Interest Rate

Brilliant. Reminds me of Will Rogers. Think of all he’d have said if he’d understood MMT.

US Treasury May Issue Debt With Floating Interest Rate

By Jeff Cox

October 24 (CNBC) — Dealers and traders have been approached recently with plans to issue a floating-rate note that for investors would provide an opportunity to profit should rates go up and for the government a chance to restructure its debt even further.

Obama to announce action on mortgages

About time!

Obama to announce action on mortgages

By Kate Mackenzie

October 24 (Financial Times) — US regulators on Monday plan to unveil a major overhaul of an under-used mortgage-refinance program designed to help millions of Americans whose home values have tumbled, the WSJ says. The plan will streamline the refinance process by eliminating appraisals and extensive underwriting requirements for most borrowers, as long as homeowners are current on their mortgage payments. The measures will not require congressional approval, says Reuters, and the first of the initiatives will be unveiled during Obama’s three-day trip to western states beginning Monday. He will discuss the changes in mortgage rules at a stop in Nevada, which has one of the hardest-hit housing markets in the country. The Obama administration has been working with the Federal Housing Finance Agency, the regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to find ways to make it easier for borrowers to switch to cheaper loans even if they have little to no equity in their homes.

Germany, the 10th plague

Ok, it’s a stretch, but the biblical story of the 10 plagues does come to mind.

One by one various member nations have seen their funding taken away. The process begins with interest rates spiking to the point where, for all practical purposes, they can’t fund themselves without outside assistance.

There has been blood in the streets of Greece.

And the latest spread of the contagion to French interest rates, however politically incorrect, does bring to mind the plague of frogs, which was closely followed Sarkozy’s begging for the ECB, only to be turned down by Germany’s still hard hearted Merkel.

So might it be with the 10th plague, the killing of the first born, which, in the case of the euro is Germany, we will see the final liberation of the euro zone from it’s enslaving institutional structure?

Maybe next spring? When the chauffeur drives up in a Nissan to take them to the promised land?

Watching those German rates closely!

Sarkozy Yields on ECB Crisis Role

He’ll be back…The way things are going there is no alternative, a point market forces continue to make.

And no amount of tea from China, at any price, would be sufficient given current institutional structure and policy.

And more discussion on whether Greece should be allowed to default, even as haircut talk rises to 60%, and as the notion of ‘voluntary’ comes under further discussion. After all, if they don’t have to pay their debts, why should any other member nation have to pay its debts? etc.

Sarkozy yields on ECB crisis role, pressure on Italy

By Julien Toyer and Andreas Rinke

October 24 (Reuters) — European Union leaders made some progress towards a strategy to fight the euro zone’s sovereign debt crisis on Sunday, nearing agreement on bank recapitalization and on how to leverage their rescue fund to try to stop bond market contagion.

But final decisions were deferred until a second summit on Wednesday and sharp differences remain over the size of losses private holders of Greek government bonds will have to accept.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy backed down in the face of implacable German opposition to his desire to use unlimited European Central Bank funds to fight the crisis.

Instead, the euro zone may turn to emerging economies such as China and Brazil for help in underpinning its sickly bond market.