IMF chief, Christine Lagarde, visits Mexico

Via Google News:
The head of the International Monetary Fund arrived in Mexico on Tuesday, where she will meet the president and central bank chief, on a Latin America tour overshadowed by the European debt crisis. IMF chief Christine Lagarde said in a blog post ahead of the trip that Mexico was "in a unique position to shape our collective economic destiny over the coming year" as it takes over leadership of the Group of 20 most powerful economies in 2012. Lagarde was scheduled for private talks with central bank chief Agustin Carstens Tuesday, before meeting with President Felipe Calderon and Finance Minister Jose Antonio Meade and giving a news conference Wednesday.

News on European Bank Stress Tests

Five Spanish banks have failed the European Union bank stress tests, including Caixa Catalunya, making up the bulk of the eight failures in the bloc, the Bank of Spain said on July 15, 2011. But the five will not need additional capital because the sector is already being restructured, the governor of the Bank of Spain, Miguel Angel Fernandez Ordonez, told a news conference. Read more here.

What do you think will be the consequences of the failed stress tests for the European economy?

Greek Cabinet Changes: Sarkozy & Merkel Urge Change

French and German leaders are starting to agree on how to rescue Greece from a European bailout.

The Greek cabinet has been changed by Greece Prime Minister George Papandreou, consequentially giving a boost to the euro and Wall Street.

This change in the Greek cabinet is a result of some of the EU’s stronger core countries push for a resolution to Greece’s fiscal debt crisis.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Prime Minister Angela Merkel showed a united front on the need for a deal in the next few weeks, but offered few details of when and how such a deal will get done – or who will pay for it.

Former Greek defense minister Evangelos Venizelos will take over as finance minister from Giorgos Papakonstantinou, the author of the wildly unpopular, albeit necessary, austerity programs, who is begin reassigned to an environmental post.

Source: Forbes