Quick Overview

• U.S. housing starts rose 3.5% in May. However, starts still remained 5.6% below levels seen in March and well below levels needed to turn the industry around.

• Bank chiefs’ average pay in the US and Europe leapt 36 % last year to $9.7m, according to data compiled for the Financial Times, despite variable performance across the sector.

• Moody’s place the government debt of Italy on alert for a possible downgrade.

• Greece has been downgraded three notches to triple C by Standard & Poor’s, just two notches above default.

• Greenspan (the ex chief default facilitator) said that a Greek default was likely.

• A deal isn't yet in sight for the next Greek rescue package, but Nicolas Sarkozy and Angela Merkel sought to express unity during a Friday meeting at the Chancellery in Berlin. Both, however, now agree that bank participation should be voluntary.

• The Senate killed the ethanol tax credit in a vote of 73 to 27. These same clowns voted less than one month ago to preserve billions of dollars in taxpayer handouts to the oil industry. This Senate action won’t result in a bill, since the House has to initiate tax legislation.
  (Current subsidies for the oil industry total up to $280 billion annually, representing up to $2 per gallon of gasoline)

• There is some speculation that commercials have bought July corn futures to take delivery.

• Forgers are buying empty Lafite and Latour bottles on eBay for several hundred Euros.

• During the first four months of 2011, the export value of China's agricultural products hit 18.68 billion US dollars, an increase of 34.4% YoY.
• Torrential rains have left huge areas of Hubei and Zhejiang provinces under water, with more than 1 million acres of farmland inundated, the official Xinhua News Agency said.

• The U.S. has hit the $14.29 trillion $ legal ceiling on borrowings and the U.S. Treasury is taking extraordinary measures to buy some time prior to Aug. 2 for Democrats and Republicans to reach a deal and ward off the default risk.

• The IMF warned that Washington and debt-ridden European countries are "playing with fire" unless they take drastic steps to reduce their budget deficits as it cut US growth forecasts.

• BYD Co. Ltd., the Chinese car maker backed by Buffett, said it had received formal approval from China's top securities regulator for an A-share listing on the Shenzhen market.

• California lost 29,200 jobs in May. Despite the job losses, the state's unemployment rate still dropped to 11.7%, from 11.8% the month before.

• (Bloomberg) -- The United Nations nuclear agency’s decision to hold talks about the Fukushima disaster behind closed doors this week ignores the “blindingly obvious” need for greater transparency..