With all the enthusiasm and confidence imparted by Obama's inauguration still on the air the news from around the financial and economics world remains fairly grim.

The Euro intelligence daily bulletin paints a serious picture. Its highlights are:

[SIZE=2][FONT=Verdana]Financials down almost 17%, S&P down 6%, as markets are slowly coming to terms with the de-facto insolvency of the banking system;[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=2][FONT=Verdana]France decides a €4-5bn rescue package for the car sector;[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=2][FONT=Verdana]French bank executives agree to forego bonus payments;[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=2][FONT=Verdana]Peer Steinbruck rejects common euro area wide bond, as it would disadvantage Germany;[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=2][FONT=Verdana]EU finance ministers agree that banks can unlock reserves;[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=2][FONT=Verdana]The market for Pfandbriefe is slowly recovering, as money and credit markets are improving;[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=2][FONT=Verdana]Nouriel Roubini puts the total value of toxic assets in the US at $3600bn;[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=2][FONT=Verdana]Christine Lagarde wants the ECB to take a leading role in providing a single clearing and settlement system for credit default swaps;[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=2][FONT=Verdana]Wolfgang Munchau calls on Germany's FDP to insist on the finance ministry as a price for participating in a federal government coalition;[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=2][FONT=Verdana]Barry Eichengreen says the euro area is now facing a symmetric economic crisis, to which policy makers should react vigorously;[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=2][FONT=Verdana]Martin Wolf says this is a crisis of global imbalances, which President Obama cannot address on his own;[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=2][FONT=Verdana]Willem Buiter says that continuing to bail out the banking sector could lead to a sovereign default in the UK;[/FONT][/SIZE]
[SIZE=2][FONT=Verdana]Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism has done the math on US house prices: latest estimates suggest an accumulated fall - for end-2009 - of nearly 50%.
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