Der Spiegel reports this morning that Angela Merkel wants Germans to run the Financial Stability Board and the Economic and Finance Committee in return for her support of Mario Draghi; she also wants to renegotiate some aspects of the ESM;European Commission opens an important investigation into the market for credit default swaps; the True Finns tone down their criticism of the EU bailout package for Portugal;the French government sees the 2011 deficit below the 5.7% target; more German officials have gone on the record in support of a Greek debt restructuring; Klaus Regling accuses banks of greed by advocated a Greek restructuring; the Irish government continues to forecast 3% GDP growth for 2013 onwards; the finance minister of Lower Saxony warns that the EBA's ruling on silent capital will undermine Germany's state banking sector; Daniel Gros says Ireland is solvent because of relatively low levels of external debt; Colm McCarthy, meanwhile, argues that the ECB's uncompromising stance on defaults is leading Europe to disaster.

I say Merkel has demonstrated in spades she's a xenophobe and she should be told to stuff her quid pro quo. If Germany was not able to muster a worthy candidate for ECB president, what guarantee can we have that the candidates they nominate for the Financial Stability Board and the Economic and Finance Committee will be qualified?

Economics is politics by other means