Todays Headlines

http://www.cnbc.com/id/44039103 - Looks like it is official now. The debt servicing costs of companies will go up as well, since usually the risk profile of private/ public business entities is higher than that of a nation. However, lets see how would it impact the treasury operations of US Fed - since anyways it was buying its own bonds.... Conclusion - Money printing will accelerate, QE3 will come soon.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2011-08-03/india/29846212_1_bailouts-economies-debt-crisis - India arranges USD2bn for bailout of Europe.... The reserves are being put into play and usually the bailout money is squandered by the natives. We should know as we have done it in the past as well. Conclusion - Its east that has the capital and lower debt ratios that will provide capital to capital starved Europe. Though they are still not addressing the real issues, addressing to liquidity will never solve a debt/ credit crisis.

http://www.mineweb.com/mineweb/view/mineweb/en/page504?oid=132967&sn=Detail - Gold standard now being talked about much more now. Its worth noting that Le Pen's party has no seats in the house now, so she can afford to be far right in terms of promises. We will see what happens when and if she comes to parliament. You need different actors to play the game so that the story looks credible. French voters have in the past largely ignored the multi-billion euro bailouts to debt-laden euro zone states, but as they tire of stubbornly high unemployment and shrunken purchasing power, pollsters say the mood is swinging towards protectionism and less support for more emergency aid. - mineweb.

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-05/ecb-said-to-buy-bonds-of-portugal-ireland-for-second-day-to-counter-drop.html - ECB was never supposed to buy sovereign bonds :). 

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-08-04/treasuries-remain-higher-as-initial-jobless-claims-signal-slowing-economy.html - Bond markets are indicating a slow down in the economy for the next six months.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/auto/automobiles/tata-motors-to-challenge-bmw-with-a-hybrid-supercar-and-an-entry-level-sedan/articleshow/9501315.cms - "The company now revolves around the JLR unit and not the other way around," said Ashvin Chotai, the managing director for Intelligence Automotive Asia. "The next challenge for both the brands is to keep the product pipeline going and exploring new product segments."

Sales of the Nano, the world's cheapest car, plunged 48% over the past two months, with demand burdened by higher borrowing costs for buyers in India, its dominant market. The Jaguar Land Rover unit, based in Gaydon, England, generated 57% of Tata Motors' revenue for the year ended March 31, up from 53%a year earlier. The division's pretax profit surged 20-fold to 1.12 billion pounds for the fiscal year. - Economic Times. Tata Motors performance in revenue and profitability terms is hinged upon JLR. JLR was always much more exclusive with buyers indulging in more finer things wanting to go and buy it. Lets hope the 3 series challenger maintains that.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics/nation/cwg-scam-cag-points-fingers-at-sheila-dikshit/articleshow/9500459.cms - Another story.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/news-by-industry/energy/oil-gas/compensation-of-rs-15k-cr-may-fail-to-save-indian-oil-bharat-petroleum-hindustan-petroleum-from-sinking-into-red/articleshow/9499611.cms - These subsidies do no good to anyone. If the prices were passed on to the consumers, then they would have opted for alternative sources of energy which the market participants would have come up with. But now we continue with the subsidies generating artificial low prices and hence demand for a commodity which anyways we dont produce inhouse in country. Free Market works.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/economy/finance/gloom-on-street-government-looks-to-spectrum-sale-to-boost-its-finances/articleshow/9500944.cms - Disinvestments and spectrum sale will be one time shot in the arm to country fiscal situation improvement, it cant continue forever. As long as deficits continue - we will see stubborn inflation.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/markets/forex/dollar-premium-crashes-as-firms-rush-to-sell-us-currency/articleshow/9499499.cms - For businesses, hightened currency volatility will be part & parcel of doing business until we address the debt issues across the world and inturn means addressing the question of reserve currency status across the world. That in turn means adding risk to the business since more aggressive ones will try to speculate in the currency market w/o hedges.