BWS Capital Partners, LLC

Still unknown who will bail out Greece

Greece’s last resort

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said during a Cabinet meeting that the country is willing to seek assistance from the International Monetary Fund if the EU does not offer enough help for its debt crisis, a senior government official said. “We have shown we can take difficult decisions. We are waiting for European support — the other side of the agreement,” Papandreou said. Many EU countries are opposed to IMF involvement.

Loophole

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou said during a Cabinet meeting that the country is willing to seek assistance from the International Monetary Fund if the EU does not offer enough help for its debt crisis, a senior government official said. “We have shown we can take difficult decisions. We are waiting for European support — the other side of the agreement,” Papandreou said. Many EU countries are opposed to IMF involvement.

Volcker rule

President Barack Obama submitted to Congress proposed legislation that would prohibit financial companies, including those that don’t own bank subsidiaries, from conducting proprietary trading. “Moreover, any financial firm that is identified for heightened supervision under the Administration’s regulatory reform proposal would be subject to additional capital and quantitative limits on these activities,” the White House’s summary said. The proposals would also limit growth of major financial institutions by prohibiting mergers that would result in a market share that is bigger than a preset limit.

Table is turned

Mexican business owners and their families, fed up with violence caused by their home country’s drug wars, are increasingly moving to the U.S., starting businesses and creating jobs. “The misfortune for Mexico [is the] fortune for the United States,” said Irene Kegan, executive director of the Mexican Business Association in San Antonio. The number of Mexicans coming to the U.S. under special visas for investors and entrepreneurs has nearly tripled in the past decade.

Blue light special

China is preparing to substantially increase its investment in the U.S. to take advantage of asset prices while they are still depressed. The strategy is largely driven by China’s determination to get a bigger yield from its dollar-denominated investments, to offset the decline of the U.S. dollar, the Los Angeles Times reported. In 2009, China’s overseas investments increased 6.5% to $43.3 billion. Chinese state media reported that the amount could grow to $60 billion this year.

Getting more desperate

U.S. President Barack Obama indicated that the Senate should use budget reconciliation to overcome a threatened Republican filibuster aimed at blocking an overhaul of the health care system. Obama pushed Congress to “finish its work” and said the body “owes the American people a final vote on health care reform.”

M&A domination

While Western nations are struggling to return to growth, China, India and other developing countries are taking a bigger part in mergers and acquisitions. Companies from emerging economies are looking to the developed world to invest their cash. David Viniar, chief financial officer of Goldman Sachs, said “this will be the century” of the emerging market.

Modest growth

A slight improvement in economic conditions was hampered by blizzards that hit the East Coast last month, according to the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book. Economic activity improved in nine of the Fed’s 12 regions. Most of the improvement was characterized as modest. Analysts had expected slower growth in the first quarter after the U.S. economy grew at its fastest rate in six years during the fourth quarter.

It’s not the Brit’s cup of tea

As the Obama administration sent Congress legislation to impose the “Volcker rule,” U.K. Business Secretary Peter Mandelson said the plan to restrict banks’ proprietary trading would be “too difficult” to implement. Instead, President Barack Obama should refocus on financial reform discussed by leaders of the Group of 20 nations, Mandelson said. “President Obama’s proposals on banking regulation, I have to say, came as a bit of a surprise to people working on the G-20 agenda, and it’s important that we keep the multinational agenda firmly on track,” Mandelson said.

No more dominance

Eurozone finance ministers are asking the European Central Bank to create a sovereign-debt rating system aimed at curbing the influence of credit rating agencies, such as Moody’s Investors Service, German business newspaper Handelsblatt reported. The move to undercut the dominance of major rating agencies has wide support within the ECB, according to the newspaper.

Austerity at a cost

When Ireland agreed to an austerity program that made the severest budget cuts in a generation, the move was praised by the outside world. Today, the Irish are paying the price for being a role model in fiscal responsibility, analysts said. Public-sector paychecks are getting smaller, government social services are being slashed and unemployment is still rising.

Trouble in paradise

Transportation services, schools and hospitals in Portugal are scheduled to be hit with a 24-hour strike by public-sector workers angry about the government’s proposal to freeze their wages. The plan is part of a package the government is expected to adopt this week to cut its deficit from last year’s 9.3% of gross domestic product to less than 3% by 2013.

Just claps, no help

EU officials praised Greece’s latest and toughest round of spending cuts and tax increases, while financial markets largely took the measure as a sign that the nation is serious about bringing its budget deficit under control. The plan is worth about $6.5 billion. German Chancellor Angela Merkel called the package “the right step.”

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