How An End To Europe's Crisis Will Hammer U.S. Bondholders - Vincent Fernando, CFA and Kamelia Angelova - According to Deutsche Bank (DB) there's a huge premium baked into U.S. treasury bonds right now thanks to fears about a European debt crisis. That's why U.S. treasury yields are extremely low, with the ten-year yield near 2.93%. ... For this and other reasons, Deutsche believes the Euro crisis premium could be from 60 - 100 basis points, which equals 0.6 - 1.0%. This means that if fear of a European crisis abates, U.S. treasuries yields could shoot back up to near 4%, as shown in the bottom chart show below. ... - Clusterstock at Business Insider

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Lawmakers Urge Pilot Program for PACE Bonds - By Peter Schroeder - Members of Congress have asked the Federal Housing Finance Agency to consider allowing a pilot program for Property Assessed Clean Energy bonds that would allow for the gathering of data on how the programs affect home loans, a point of concern for the regulator. The FHFA — which regulates Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac ...  bond financing of a limited number of homeowners’ energy-efficient upgrades and retrofits, with the bonds to be paid back over several years via a special assessment on the homeowner’s property taxes, according to a spokesperson for Rep. Steve Israel, D-N.Y. ... - Bond Buyer (limited access)

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Bernanke Urges Congress to Renew Bush Tax Cuts - By: David A. Patten - Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke dropped a major bombshell on Democrats seeking massive new revenues to narrow the deficit, announcing Thursday that he favors preserving the Bush administration tax cuts to help a faltering U.S. economy.  “In the short term I would believe that we ought to maintain a reasonable degree of fiscal support, stimulus for the economy,” Bernanke told the House Financial Services Committee. “There are many ways to do that. This is one way.” - Newsmax  
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Why Banks Should Back Elizabeth Warren to Head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau - By Alain Sherter - Among the many reasons why President Obama should name Elizabeth Warren to head the government’s new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau are her toughness, independence and expertise. But the best reason is also the one that gets the least attention: Warren — scourge of Wall Street, tormentor of bank CEOs and shifty U.S. Treasury officials — can help restore faith in our financial system. - Bnet
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Unfunded Entitlements ‘r’ Us - By Paul Kedrosky -  Michael Cembalest of JP Morgan’s latest contains this chart comparing funded and unfunded entitlements – stuff countries have promised citizens, but haven’t figured out how to pay for – in the U.S. and Europe. ... - Infectious Greed Blog