Halifax's Marketing Snafu

Top Cat lived in a bin pic.twitter.com/9dWO7N3QpP

— Ricky Haggett (@KommanderKlobb) April 27, 2016

Eurogroup Cancelled

The Quadriga and Greece have been unable to agree on the list of contingency measures worth 3.6 billion euro demanded by the IMF, as such Thursday's Eurogroup meeting has been cancelled.

Greece has not specified where the cuts would be made.

When will Greece realise that leaving the Eurozone is its best option?

No Greek Deal

No deal between Greece and lenders seen on Friday: Eurogroup head https://t.co/xgWgIyxG2I pic.twitter.com/pMzw6VjArS

— Reuters Top News (@Reuters) April 22, 2016

The Wheels Fall Off The Auto Industry - Volkswagen To Buy Back Cheating Cars

Volkswagen, the US government and private lawyers have reached a deal whereby VW will buy back some of the nearly 600,000 diesel cars that cheat on emissions tests and spend just over $1bn to compensate owners.

The Guardian reports that some owners would get a choice of having VW repair their cars or buy them back.

 

How the $1bn is to be allocated and distributed remains to be seen.

 

VW is of course not the only car maker to have cheated wrt emissions, doubtless the other cheaters will be looking at their books to see how much they can afford to pay out.

The Eurozone is Killing Greece

Punchy letter from a reader in Athens in yesterday's FT pic.twitter.com/r9SJGaGrUF

— Alasdair Pal (@AlasdairPal) April 20, 2016

China Is a Busted Flush

China firms now take a record 192 days to collect payment for their goods/services from when they pay for the inputs https://t.co/SnmD7EaxL7

— Linda Yueh (@lindayueh) April 20, 2016

Kicking The Can Down The Road

"We'll see further debt crises," ex-Bank of England governor Mervyn King says. Watch live https://t.co/otlPc1shgx https://t.co/mxXL8XMKx1

— Bloomberg TV (@BloombergTV) April 20, 2016

Failed In Spain Since 2009

*ECB SAYS SPAIN MISSED DEFICIT TARGET BY `LARGE MARGIN' // Yes, every year since 2009.

— Dick Darlington (@Darlington_Dick) April 19, 2016

BP Shareholders Revolt Over CEO Pay Rise

Today's BP shareholders' meeting will be a stormy affair, as some investors are planning to vote against chief executive Bob Dudley's 20% pay rise taking his package to £14M.

Shareholders feel that the pay rise for the CEO and other executives are not appropriate given BP's job cuts and falling profits.

The BBC reports that those who have spoken out include Aberdeen Asset Management and Royal London Asset Management.

The Price of Misconduct - £53BN and Rising!

New City Agenda has issued a report that states that lawsuits and misconduct fines have cost Britain's largest retail banks and customer-owned lenders almost £53BN over the past 15 years.

Reuters quotes John McFall, a director of New City Agenda and former Treasury Committee chairman:

"The profitability of UK retail banks has been imperilled by persistent misconduct.

This has made every citizen poorer through our pension funds and our ownership of the bailed out banks." 

I am more than certain that the costs will keep rising!

Greek Bailout Talks Halted

Greek bailout review talks halted as differences between IMF and EU Commission remain https://t.co/0rwiehhgUG

— Open Europe (@OpenEurope) April 12, 2016

Germany Offers Negative Interest Rates

German banks: "we have a special rate for you"#Cash#Bitcoin#Gold#Winners pic.twitter.com/sUEifC0Rp2

— Lawrence McDonald (@Convertbond) April 12, 2016

Germany's Fair Deal For Britain After Brexit

Germany believes that Britain will vote for Brexit in June. As such, Merkel wants Britain to be given fair treatment after the vote.

The Commentator reports that Germany will make the following previsions:

1) Immediately toning down any reference to "punishing" Britain for leaving;

2) Forging a UK-EU cooperation agreement to deal with all strategic, economic and migration issues;

3) Including, as a top priority, the United States, to be an honest broker.

In other words, Germany wishes it to be business as normal wrt business and normal interstate interactions.

Greece Wallows In Permanent Unemployment

#Greece The seasonally adjusted unemployment rate in January 2016 was 24.4% vs 25.7% in January 2015 and vs 24.3% in December 2015

— Efthimia Efthimiou (@EfiEfthimiou) April 7, 2016

Why on earth does Greece want to remain in the Eurozone?

Lagarde's "Good Faith"

International Monetary Fund Managing Director Christine Lagarde has said that her team was continuing to negotiate with Greece "in good faith" over its debt issues.

She told Bloomberg TV the aim was to restore Greek competitiveness within a framework of debt sustainability.

Quoted by Reuters, she said:

"The objectives have not changed.

Everything has to add up."

Lagarde is of course being somewhat disingenuous, for she has neglected to mention that Germany has said "nein" to any for of debt relief for Greece.

Without debt relief, the IMF will not remain part of the Quadriga. Which brings us back to the "credit event" that the IMF was plotting, in order to bring about a solution to the Greek/German impasse. This "event" has, of course, been hotly denied by Lagarde.

However, she would deny that wouldn't she?

Lagarde Ridicules Greek Leaks

International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde has dismissed reports that the IMF is trying to push Greece towards default as "simply nonsense".

As per the IMF:

"The IMF conducts its negotiations in good faith, not by way of threats, and we do not communicate through leaks."

What she hasn't said though is that the leak is fake.

That means that the conversation did occur and that either there is a whistle blower in the IMF, who managed to transcribe the discussion about forcing an agreement on Greece, or that the room in which the discussion was held was bugged.

The question is, what are the IMF going to do about those tow possibilities?

IMF and Greece Fall Out

Greek Prime Minister Sends Angry Letter To Christine Lagarde Over IMF Leak https://t.co/JQGlc4UVZ5 pic.twitter.com/b8VFHVi2Fg

— zerohedge (@zerohedge) April 2, 2016