European stocks to extend slump and gold scales new record (Reuters)

The IMF 2009 country report on Canada discusses there current economic condition. As part of that they explore the success Canada had in regulating their banking sector (which stands in stark contract to the catastrophic regulatory failures in the USA and Europe). And also provide ample evidence of that wise regulation did indeed prevent the financial crisis.

BRUSSELS – The European Union reached a landmark deal on Thursday to make the European Central Bank the bloc’s top banking supervisor, giving EU leaders greater confidence that they are gaining the upper hand over the eurozone’s debt crisis. EU finance ministers forged a deal on the single supervisor in the early hours of Thursday after marathon talks. Leaders will give their stamp of approval at a summit starting later in the day, their last of 2012, and also discuss closer fiscal ties for their troubled currency area.

Everyone at the conference seemed to like this model of endogenous banking crises (me included -- this is the non-technical summary, the paper itself is fairly technical):

Reuters - The BSE Sensex extended its fall to more than 3 percent on Friday, joining a decline in Asian stocks after fresh fears that the global economy is sliding back into recession.

Click the graphic to enlarge...

From my article at the American.com (with Robert Dell),"More Equity, Less Government: Rethinking Bank Regulation":

Cliff Wachtel submits: Key Market Drivers For The Prior and Coming Week: Over the past week, the term ‘the race to the bottom’ has referred to the competitive currency devaluation by various states as means of boosting exports and gaining growth at the expense of others. Regular readers know I’ve believed that the EU’s sovereign debt and banking crisis outweighed any other threat to global financial markets, and thus made the USD a