Stock exchanges and bonds, the downgrading of the US declared by S&P also keeps Europe and Asia on the alert

A weekend of frantic consultations in Europe and America with the urgent convening of the G7 and telephone summits between central banks holds sway after the historic downgrade of the US by the rating agency Standard & Poor's and in view of the reopening of the markets. After feverish consultations between heads of government and central bankers, at least two important appointments are now in the pipeline: a teleconference of the G7 finance ministers and a telephone summit between the ECB and the central governors of the G20.
The goal is to give a signal to the markets before the Asian stock exchanges reopen tonight (Italian time) and the European ones tomorrow morning. There is also talk of anticipating the actual G7 of heads of government and state scheduled for September in Marseilles.
One of the most immediate hypotheses circulating for the next few hours is that of a strong pressure from the G7 on the ECB so that it hastens to buy the government bonds of the countries most at risk today such as Italy and Spain on the market. It is no coincidence that the European Central Bank is convening its Governing Council today on an extraordinary basis and will liaise with central bank governors from both Europe and the G20.
While waiting for Europe to strike a blow, America too is experiencing feverish hours. The historic downgrading left its mark and the Republicans went on the attack on the White House: "This is Obama's downgrading". In these hours there is also talk of the resignation of Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner. But what impressed the Americans was also the harsh rebuke addressed to the United States by China, which in recent years has pledged a lot of capital in American government bonds: "Solve your debt problems".     
In this situation of acute alarm, it remains to be seen how the markets will welcome the move decided on Friday by the Italian Government to bring forward the economic measures and the achievement of a balanced budget by 2013 with the squeeze on welfare towards the middle of next year and with the promise to start labor market reform and liberalisations. 
After the perfect storm of the markets of the last few days, the scorching summer of 2011 promises to continue and the markets of the last few days have other twists in store.