Eurozone Crisis, Royal Bank of Scotland, Hostile Takeover, Don't Bank on Them, Bank Transfer

Eurozone Crisis

• Eurozone crisis: How the figures stack up
• The great EU conjuring trick--"The original players behind the single currency claim astonishing sleights of hand have brought the euro to its knees."
• A Bluffing Game: European Politicians in Denial as Greece Unravels
• S&P says Greek default is essentially a given--Getting ever closer to bankruptcy.
• Krugman: The Austerity Debacle NYT
• IMF's Christine Lagarde warns of '1930s moment'
• George Soros says 'debt crisis could destroy European political union'
• Zombie banks are dragging Ireland into the ground
• UK debt passes £1 trillion but there is still good news
• France pitches 'Robin Hood' tax

Royal Bank of Scotland

• Bailed-out RBS spends millions on Washington lobbyists--"Bailed-out bank has spent over £2.5m of British taxpayers' money to influence politicians reforming US financial law."
• Anger at further RBS bonus payouts--The uproar got RBS chief executive Stephen Hester to decline the bonus.
• Blocking RBS bonus 'would cause chaos', Iain Duncan Smith warns
• Former RBS boss Fred Goodwin stripped of knighthood

Hostile Takeover

• Auction 2012: How The Bank Lobby Owns Washington
• The Quiet Coup--"The crash has laid bare many unpleasant truths about the United States. One of the most alarming, says a former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, is that the finance industry has effectively captured our government—a state of affairs that more typically describes emerging markets, and is at the center of many emerging-market crises."
• Moyers & Company Show 103: How power and influence helped big banks rewrite the rules of our economy.

Don't Bank On Them

• Missing Funds at MF Global May Have 'Vaporized'--"Nearly three months after MF Global Holdings Ltd. collapsed, officials hunting for an estimated $1.2 billion in missing customer money increasingly believe that much of it might never be recovered, according to people familiar with the investigation."
• Bank of America Settlements Impede Fraud Probe, Arizona Says
• Freddie Mac Betting Against Struggling Homeowners
• Homeowner wins back her house after fighting foreclosure--"Karen Mena managed to get a foreclosure on her San Bernardino home rescinded. But she continues to negotiate with Bank of America over loan terms and could still lose the house."
• Banks imposing more fees, taking away free checking accounts
• Banks Taketh, but Don't Giveth NYT

Banks Transfer

• The Numbers Are In: "[A] staggering 5.6 million big bank customers have switched banks in the last 90 days"
• Personal Finance: Bank Transfer Day saw 600,000 switch
• If you don't like the way big banks are run, move your money