Europe's Plan for Battling Crisis Gets Powerful Backing

A story is making the rounds that suggests leaders are going to get together and hammer out a "fiscal union". The story appears to have originated on the Welt Online, a German tabloid. The article mentions a Secret Plan for a New Europe.

By Bret Jensen:The market continued a massive rally this week as Europe agreed to the latest plan to prevent Europe contagion. Details were light, but enough to fuel the stock market higher. Given the worsening numbers out of Europe, I think the results of the latest plan will be like its predecessors; a nice sugar high followed by huge selloff creating the need the latest new plan to save the world. 10 signs the situation in Europe continues to worsen:

Albrecht Ritschl is professor of economic history at the London School of Economics and a member of the advisory board to the German ministry of economics.

It would be quite ironic and rather fitting if Germany and France fail to ratify the Merkozy treaty. 25 Nations have ratified the treaty but France and Germany still have not. French president Francois Hollande has already threatened non-ratification unless the treaty is revised. The Leader of the Social Democrat Party (SPD)in Germany, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, is making similar threats for the first time.

By Eric Parnell:A variety of fundamental factors are supportive of a continued rally in the U.S. dollar over the near-term. However, further gains are likely to remain on hold until it can work through currently stiff technical resistance.

It seems that the Cypriot government is going full circle on its plans to save its nation and its people. As UK Think Tank Open Europe notes, "it now seems we have come all the way back round to the deposit levy as a solution in Cyprus.

Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke, making a case for a second term on Thursday, offered a forceful defence of the U.S. central bank’s crisis-battling efforts, which he said prevented an even greater calamity.

Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress Tuesday that a flurry of radical programs aimed at busting through debilitating credit clogs are showing promise and pledged to keep Americans better informed about efforts to battle the worst financial crisis since the 1930s.