As Merkel pursues imperialism...the reason is not the stated one...

• MERKEL SAYS 'WE NEED GREAT BRITAIN IN THE EUROPEAN UNION' - BLOOMBERG
• MERKEL SAYS GREECE IN 'VERY COMPLICATED SITUATION'
• MERKEL SAYS GREECE NEEDS FULL DISCLOSURE OF ECONOMIC SITUATION
• MERKEL SAYS GREECE EURO EXIT WOULD HAVE 'INCALCULABLE' IMPACT
• MERKEL SAYS JOINT DEBT ONLY PAPERS OVER COMPETITIVENESS GAPS
• MERKEL SAYS SHE WILL HAVE NO PART IN FORCING GREECE OUT OF THE EURO - RTRS

The real urge for her and Sarkozy and all the central planners is clearly not the stated ones. They are really pursuing the imperialism of banking and leveraged finance. The reality is that they do not want to let derivatives contagious bankrupt the largest financial institutions. The really is that derivatives contracts impact well over 700 TRILLION (with a "T") notionally and many of them are naked or hedged with other derivatives that are ultimately not fully hedged or covered financially. This is AIG all over again except bigger...

The results of the total disrespect shown by central planners and regulators to sophisticated financial instruments that have become the pillars of our financial system has proven that the contracts that supposedly hold up the balance sheets for institutions and companies around the world are in many cases potentially not even worth the paper they were written on...for this reason people are rushing to close open derivatives and that is a big part of our deleveraging process that is going on.

There is a post the Charles Hugh Smith posted on some unintuitive dynamics effecting deleveraging that combine with rising prices that is worth a good read...Has Derivatives Deleveraging Fueled the Stock Rally?

Meanwhile the dollar is closely tracking the chart I posted the other day: