Benzinga's Political Round Up

The troika recommended that Greece should get its next tranche of the bailout money immediately. EU officials indicated European banks will need far less capital than the IMF had estimated, and even more than private analysts think. Citigroup (NYSE: C) will pay $285 million to settle charges...

Moody's downgraded Spain to A1 from Aa2 with a negative outlook. There is a report in Reuters that a a deal between U.S. states and major banks such as Bank of America (NYSE: BAC) and J.P. Morgan (NYSE: JPM) over improper foreclosure practices is close.

According to a letter from the FCC, AT&T (NYSE: T) has provided "almost nothing" to support its claim it would create 55,000-96,000 jobs if it were to buy T-Mobile. The U.S. has rejected the plan to potentially strengthen the IMF to help out with the European financial crisis.

Chinese export growth slowed to 17.1% year-over-year in September from 24.5% in August. Slovakia is on tract to ratify the expansion of the EFSF.

Slovakia has passed the bill expanding the EFSF rescue fund. There was a bill in the Senate yesterday that passed which labels China a currency manipulator. The Senate yesterday blocked consideration of President Obama's jobs bill, voting 50-49 against advancing it.

Slovakia's SaS party has said it will abstain from a vote today to expand the EFSF, and that Slovakia will likely fail in voting to get the EFSF expanded. Jean-Claude Juncker may have said <ahref>Greece's bondholders may have to take a haircut of 50%-60%, or perhaps more. A settlement...

Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy yesterday pledged to solve the Eurozone's debt crisis, and said that a deal is near. Slovakia has threatened to blow up the European Financial Stability Facility, as it still has to ratify it, and the government does not seem particularly enthralled about the...

Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy are going to meet on Sunday to try to figure out how to use the European Financial Stability Facility to There is a bill in the Senate to impose sanctions on China over its yuan practices which some think could increase American employment by 3 million jobs....

More news came out yesterday that Europe is trying to backstop the European banks. Moody's downgraded Italy to A2 with negative outlook yesterday.

Eurozone finance ministers have agreed on collateral in exchange for loans to Greece. China expressed "deep regret" over a proposed bill that may spark a trade war.

The Greek cabinet said it will miss its deficit target in 2012, as it comes in at 6.8%, above the 6.5% target. Citigroup (NYSE: C) is being investigated by Japanese regulators over marketing of financial products.

The Justice Department is looking into accounting practices of Chinese companies listed in the U.S.

The German parliament approved increasing the Euro Financial Stability Facility. The Justice Department asked for more information on the Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) and Motorola Mobility (NYSE: MMI) merger.

The troika headed to Greece today to try to figure out if the terms on Greece's second bailout should be re-opened. European Commission president Jose Manuel Barroso asked for more stimulus to help the Eurozone.

There are conflicting reports this morning about the potential "bazooka" that the EFSF would be in helping Europe fix its problems. Japanese finance minister Jun Azumi said Japan would be open to helping bail out Greece. The Senate voted in favor yesterday of a bill that avoid a government...