• Germany and France continue to push for more centralized power in the EU concerning national budgets as the EU summit approaches on December 9th. Hope for some concreted steps outlining greater integration is bolstering markets. From Reuters News.
• The OECD said today that the euro zone has already entered a recession, and will only net growth of .2% in 2012. The forecast is down from 2% growth in May. Its forecast for world growth shrank to 3.4% in 2012 from 3.8%, and the organization warned of global economic contagion if the debt crisis is not contained in Europe. From Reuters News.
• Euro zone banks are having increasing difficulties funding debt obligations coming due this year as investors pull back. As a group, banks face a funding shortfall of about $241B in 2011. This will put increasing pressure on asset sales at a time when capital requirements are going up. From the Financial Time.
• Weekend Holiday retail sales raised hope for consumer spending as retail sales for the four-day period rose 16.4% from 2010. Online sales figures soared. The figures are based on a survey by the National Retail Federation. From the Wall Street Journal.