Whither Europe: Greece’s pro-bailout parties agreed to form a governing coalition, Reuters reports, just in time to beseech European powers to release the next installment of bailout funds. Royal Bank of Scotland CEO Stephen Hester thinks it may take years to solve the European debt crisis. The Bank of England is set to release a new round of stimulus. Italian banks are facing the fallout from the European debt crisis on one hand the effects of its third recession in a decade on the other, and it kind of sort of seems like they’re going to need to raise some capital to provide for souring loans.
The U.S. hotels are suffering. Bookings by European tourists dropped 1.1 percent in the first five months of the year; during the first five months of 2010, Euro-bookings rose 13.7 percent.
Fed watch: So there’s a mess in Europe, apparently, and something called a fiscal cliff looming at the end of the year, not to mention slower hiring last month. Will the Federal Reserve act—be it by extending Operation Twist, or further extending its time line for raising interest rates? The central bank concludes a two-day meeting today, and Fed watchers…will be watching.
Coming clean: A 38-year-old janitor who said she cleans a JPMorgan office building in Houston confronted Jamie Dimon after his appearance at the House Financial Services Committee yesterday, asking the banking executive why he denies “the people cleaning your buildings a living wage?” Mr. Dimon told the janitor to call his office. A JPMorgan spokesman blamed the building company.
White collar: As former Enron chief executive officer Jeffrey K. Skilling comes up for re-sentencing, The New York Times’ Steven M. Davidoff suggests that the initial punishment was too harsh.
Kanas dinged: Former North Fork Bancorp chief executive John Kanas and top deputy John Bohlsen agreed to pay $20 million after violating a non-compete agreement with Capital One that was supposed to keep the pair out of the New York market through August 2012.
Eastern Elite: There were more millionaires in the Asia-Pacific region of the world than in North America last year, according to a report from Capgemini SA and RBC Wealth Management. According to the study, it was the first time Asian millionaires outnumbered millionaires on this continent.
Tell-all: Financial fraudster Ken Starr’s former-stripper wife Diane Passage is shopping a memoir.
Sore Asness: AQR Capital Management founder Cliff Asness got a little fired up apparently over a Politico story on Sen. Chuck Schumer’s resumed courtship of financial industry donors. Can Democrats win back Wall Street? “Only if Wall Street is so f—ing stupid as to defy credulity, honor, and morality,” Mr. Asness said, according to an e-mail published by Dealbreaker. “So, yeah, probably.”
