Readers of MacroScope who live in the northern hemisphere will be gearing up for some summer reading.

James Montier, the market psychologist who is also an equity analyst at Societe Generale, has come up with his annual recomendations of what to read. The full list is here, but for the current economic and market crisis he has this to offer:

My favourite book in this category is Bill Fleckenstein’s ‘Greenspan’s Bubbles’ -- an excellent exposé of incompetence during Alan Greenspan's tenure as Fed Chairman. The next choice in this group is Whitney Tilson and Glen Tongue’s ‘More Mortgage Meltdown’. This book explains clearly how we ended up in this mess (and is based on the authors -- real time experience), and an added bonus is the insight into Tilson's investment process provided by the case studies. My final choice in this section is Jim Grant’s ‘Mr. Market Miscalculates’. I've mentioned this excellent book before, and I believe it deserves a place on all investors' bookshelves.

Montier got MacroScope thinking. There must be many more crisis books, or related ones, that are worthy of a read as the summer rolls in. How about John Kenneth Galbraith's 'The Great Crash, 1929' or Tom Wolfe's 'Bonfire of the Vanities', which still has one of the best descriptions ever of how bond traders make money.

So let's have your suggestions. What should you read to mark the crisis?

MacroScope is pleased to post the following from guest blogger Peter Attard Montalto. Peter is emerging market economist at Nomura International and here outlines why he is cautiously constructive on the issue of sovereign risk in South Africa.

Recent events in South Africa have sent some conflicting signals to investors about sovereign risks. On the one hand there was some regulatory flip-flopping over the Vodacom listing given objections from the union organisation COSATU, which raised questions about the influence of unions in Jacob Zuma’s administration. On the other hand the sovereign issuing some $1.5 billion was highly successful and oversubscribed.

With Zuma recently elected on a platform of change for his domestic audience and continuation of old policies when speaking to investors, there is a raft of new ministers and new ministries and quite a bit of policy uncertainty. No foreign investor will deny South Africa’s need to address serious social problems of inequality, housing, jobs and education through a more developmental state agenda. However investors I speak to simply want to see that this is not at the expense of the productive sectors of the economy.

This agenda will naturally involve the ANC’s allies: COSATU and SACP (communist party).  As such, the process of governing will be a noisy affair for investors. I put the Vodacom incident down to such noise.

However I believe the new Zuma administration will find itself heavily constrained by the need to raise funds for its agenda and so keep investors onside as the government’s borrowing requirement balloons. Add state owned enterprises engaging in very necessary investment, and a current account deficit and you arrive at a funding requirement north of  500 billion rand for the next two years.

This will act as a strong rationalising influence though a backup overdraft in the form of an IMF flexible credit lending facility would be a benefit.  It also should not be forgotten that there is still a strong business influence in the cabinet and the ANC from the likes of Cyril Ramaphosa and Tokyo Sexwale.  Most investors buy the case of policy not shifting sharply to the left, though a lot of questions have been planted in the minds of investors.

Keeping the different factions in his cabinet in line will be key for Zuma’s success, especially with two new hurdles looming: the Bharti/MTN and the Xstrata/Anglo American mergers. Both are sensitive and likely to be jumped on by unions.  The inflation-targeting debate is also being reopened locally -- a topic foreign investors love to discuss.

It is now up to Zuma and his team to deliver on prudent macro-policy as well as his developmental state priorities in order to sustain the current goodwill from investors.  It is still early days for his administration. We hope not to be disappointed -- for South Africa’s sake as much as anyone elses.

Automatic teller machines (ATMs) -- 500 of them -- dispensing pieces of gold will be available around Germany, Switzerland and Austria by the end of this year.

That at least is the plan of German precious metals online trading company TG-Gold-Super-Markt.de. The ATMs, to be located at airports, railway stations and shopping malls, are intended to accustom ordinary people to the idea of investing in a physical asset such as gold, the thinking goes.
 
Thomas Geissler, the company's chief executive, said the gold ATMs might even improve relations between the sexes.
 
"I have yet to meet a woman who does not like a gift of gold. It's better than flowers. Flowers are more expensive. They wilt and you (as a man) don't get as many points at home as if you bring gold," he said.
 
A prototype ATM on display for a one-day marketing test at the main railway station in Frankfurt, Germany's financial capital, did indeed reward your correspondent with a 1-gramme (0.0353 ounce) piece of gold.
 
It cost the equivalent of $42.25 -- a 30 percent premium over the spot market price.

The steady stream of less-bad-than-expected economic data has evidently been working as a builder of optimism. Confidence in improved economies and financlal market conditions is growing.

One of the biggest surprises has been Germany's ZEW economic sentiment survey -- which polls analysts and economists in Europe's largest economy. Not only did the index jump this month, it entered positive territory for the first time since July 2007. That was before the credit crisis hit.

U.S. financial services firm State Street also reports that the mood among institutional investors in North America, Europe and Asia is at a nine month high. The main point about this survey is that it is extraplolated from the actual buying and selling patterns within $12 trillion that State Street holds for investors as a custodian.

So, things are on the up. But would that not be expected given the huge amount of money being pumped into the world economy by governments and central banks? Or after global stocks have risen close to 30 percent on a period of about six weeks?

What is always unclear when it comes to sentiment indicators is whether they point to someting new or just reflect exisiting circumstances.

But maybe it does not matter. If people think that things are going to get better, doesn't that just mean they are more likely to?

(Photo: Jeremy Gaunt)

For all the designer drinks and gourmet foods - from raw oysters to sushi, and the sea of men in expensive suits and bejeweled women in elegant gowns, the setting seemed fit only for celebration.

But dressed as they were to the nines, investors attending "A Night with the Bears" at Toronto's upscale Elgin Theatre, were eager to hear the worst, on the edges of plush seats amid predictions of market doom from some of the continent's savviest
financial minds.

"I only wish we'd sold tickets," said a smiling Eric Sprott, arguably Canada's best known hedge fund manager and chairman at Sprott Asset Management Inc, as he looked out at the 1,500 or so crowd.

In a media room below stage, journalists were held equally rapt by the star speakers after being treated to a hand-operated elevator ride.

Once there, rows of chairs slowly filled as smartly-dressed servers roamed the dimly-lit space
offering drinks to journalists briefed quickly.

The message?

When an economic recovery takes place -- and it won't take place any time soon -- it's going to be a weak and shallow recovery.

"Still negative growth, still the worst recession we've had in the last 60 years, still the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression, still even many of the largest banks are going to be found insolvent," said Nouriel Roubini, a professor of economics at the New York University's Stern School of Business, who rose to celebrity status after sounding early warning signs about housing bubbles and the credit crisis.

Later, experts on stage predicted bank failures and harsher times unless back-to-basics medicine is applied to cure a U.S. economic "pneumonia" that spread to the rest of the world late last year.
"There's a buyer's strike and the market is not coming back," said Meredith Whitney, a Wall Street veteran of more than 15 years and one of it's most bearish bank analysts. The groan from Torontonians was audible.

Canada's financial system, for many years criticized for being heavily conservative, is now credited for being among the world's soundest and most resilient to the global crisis.

Canadian banks are routinely ranked as the world's most solid, having remained profitable despite a crisis that pushed many U.S. and European institutions to the brink of insolvency.
Whitney predicted U.S. banks will need to start raising capital by selling hard assets, and advised investors to "stay tuned" for opportunities.

Roubini, introduced to the audience by his nickname "Dr. Doom", appeared a tad irritated by the moniker, but not enough to change his tune.

"I don't think I'm too bearish," he told reporters. "I am more a realist rather than a pessimist."

"I'll be the first one to call for the bottom of this economic contraction, recovery of the market when I see a sustained economic and, therefore, financial recovery. I don't define myself as a permabear."

He says he can't be too bearish because he thinks all the massive stimulus measures and rate cuts around the globe will eventually kick in to avert an "L-shaped" near-depression like the one Japan experienced.

He described the U.S. recession as three times as long and five times as deep as the last, and warned a recent stocks rally was just a precursor to another fall.

"For the first time in more than 60 years we have a global, synchronized recession."

(Additional reporting by Jennifer Kwan)

Five things to think about this week:

-- IS RATE OF ECONOMIC CONTRACTION SLOWING?
Some economic reports have been pointing to a slowdown in the pace at which economic conditions are deteriorating -- eg U.S. home sales data; auto sales data; PMIs; UK lenders seeing improved credit availability in Q2, and PMI data. While job destruction is continuing apace, signs that inventories are being drawn down leave room for hope for those inclined to look for the silver lining, or even seek a bottom to the current downturn.

-- REBOUND MOMENTUM
Investors are wondering whether equity markets can extend a solid Q2 start now that major fiscal stimulus announcements, rate cuts, QE  (in most developed economies), the London G20 meeting, and other big milestones are largely behind them. A sustained narrowing of corporate spreads, the VIX clearly breaking out of ranges that have held post-Lehman, and any shift out of defensive stocks are just some of the signals that would suggest that the rebound has legs.

-- QE CLUB
The European Central Bank opted to wait another month before deciding on whether to join the QE club and unexpectedly left itself room for a further refi cut. By contrast, curveballs are unlikely from Bank of England and Bank of Japan policy meetings given their quantitative easings are under way. The relative performance of their respective sovereign debt markets is in focus as a result, as are the inflation outlooks being priced in by index-linked paper at a time when some are pondering the longer-term fallout of QE policy. The Reserve Bank of Ausstralia also meets this week week but markets finding it tough to call the outcome.

-- EMERGING
The MSCI emerging market index's year-to-date performance is in positive territory and investors' willingness to venture further into these waters could rise given the International Monetary Fund is ready for new business with a hefty increase in resources and has found its first client for the new credit line that doesn't impose conditionality for those strong economic track records. Just knowing such a backstop is there could foster confidence in well-run emerging economies and see their outperformance against less well-thought-of peers become even more pronounced.

-- FIXING BANK BALANCE SHEETS
A drive to improve health of financial sector balance sheets is being pursued at regulatory/industry/firm levels. M&A activity, rights issues, and bond buybacks or exchanges are being deployed to improve health of bank capital. Relaxation of mark-to-market rules in the U.S. is expected to flatter Q1 earnings results -- and has already helped U.S. financials. Interest in how many U.S. banks plump for the option given not all European banks moved away from market-to-market rules when given the choice in 2008. Stock markets look more inclined to hope for a break in financial sector gloom.

Japan, slightly sidelined by the U.S.-UK "special" relationship and the Franco-German alliance at the G20 summit, is keen to stress the country can offer lessons to be learned from the country's banking crisis in the 1990s.

Here's a re-cap of what happened. In 1992, then-PM Miyazawa warned of a financial crisis unless banks were recapitalised using public funds now. Yet no action was taken. Between 1995 and 1997, staggering 5 financial institutions failed, forcing the government to inject public funds into 21 banks in 1998. Then two major banks were nationalised, then the government injected additional capital into 32 banks.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner experienced the crisis himself as a financial attache at the U.S. embassy in Tokyo in the 1990s.

But how relevant are Japanese lessons to the global markets today?

"In some ways, Japan was lucky. Its lost decade was spent at a time when the global economy was recovering from recession. As a result, there was an opportunity for exports to grow," Ian Bright, ING economist, writes in a paper which won the Society of Business Economists' Rybczynski Prize.

"Today, the situation is different. The problems in financial markets are global rather than local. As a result, the chances of any one country finding solace in exports are slim."

(Reuters photo: Toru Hanai)

Marilyn Monroe, who sang “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend” in the 50s, might be shocked to find out that the value of dimonds has fallen rapidly in the past six months.

According to Nomura, the average best price for to quality 1-Carat diamonds has fallen below $7,000 from hitting a multi-year high near $9,000 in September 2008.

Perhaps gold might grab her attention. The metal has surged towards $1,000 an ounce in the past weeks as investors rushed to seek save-haven gold when stock markets came under renewed pressure.

Mohamed El-Erian, chief executive officer of PIMCO (not pictured below), painted a bleak picture of the global economy at a press briefing of Allianz Global Investors earlier today.

“This is not the crisis within the global system. This is the crisis of the global system,” El-Erian says.

“Internal circuit breakers are meant to deal with crises within the system. The crisis of the system challenges all the circuit breakers. There is no reset button.”

For the patient — the world economy — who is in intensive care after a cardiac arrest following the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September, governments will play a bigger role in getting the patient back on a recovery path.

“You can no longer predict asset value without thinking about the role of governments. Governments are no longer referees, they are players,” El-Erian says.

There have been a lot of analogies to describe the financial pain of the current economic recession, but CCMP Capital Chairman Gregory Brenneman evoked a more holy view.

"A prolonged recession feels a little Biblical to me. It's like the story of Joseph -- seven years of feast, seven years of famine. It feels like we're in year two to me," Brenneman said.

He said he expects U.S. unemployment to hit 10-11 percent before the recession ends, and real GDP (gross domestic product) will be down 2 percent.

"Recovery won't happen until the back half of 2010. That means nobody really knows, but it's going to be a long time from now," Brenneman told the Wharton Restructuring and Turnaround Conference in Philadelphia on Friday.

Despite his view that the U.S. was mired in economic famine, Brenneman said it was a great time for private equity firms to buy good assets for low valuations.

"Really good companies are priced the same as so-so or bad companies. It's a great time to buy things you couldn't otherwise buy," he said.  "The best P/E times have been in times like these," Brenneman said.