Short and sweet -- General Electric (GE) reported higher profits on slower sales with a positive outlook.

The company reported earnings of $3.2 billion, with EPS of 29 cents, up 32% from the third quarter of 2009. This is the second quarter (oh boy, a streak!) GE increased orders, displaying continuing-earnings growth. Revenue was $35.9 billion for the quarter, down 5% on lower equipment sales and reduced GE Capital assets. GE expects fourth-quarter 2010 Industrial revenues to grow sequentially from third quarter and to be about flat with the year-ago period.

At the G-20 summit in Toronto later this week, a battle may surface between the "immovable object" and the "irresistible force." Germany and the United States are at odds concerning the world's proper public policy stance at this stage of the financial crisis.

Germany is emphasizing that credit market and economic conditions are healthy enough to move forward with deficit reduction and related stimulus exit strategies, Bloomberg News reported Monday.

In yet another surprise move, Germany wants to widen its ban on naked short selling. According to the Wall Street Journal, Germany's Finance Ministry proposed extending its ban on "naked short selling" to cover all stocks and euro currency derivatives not intended for hedging.

Naked short sales covers sales not owned by the seller and isn't borrowed to cover the position while it is held. Many politicians in Germany see naked short selling as a way to manipulate the markets. What happens is that naked short sales can dwarf the underlying assets.

Will the euro's decline in value prevent a dreaded euro-zone recession? That's the conclusion of one analyst.

"The euro depreciation is very good news for the region" because the rest of the world economy is expanding, Charles Wyplosz, head of the International Center for Monetary and Banking Studies in Geneva, told Bloomberg News Thursday. "This is going to bring a welcome boost that may save the euro-zone from outright recession."

The financial stocks and the overall market continued to get pounded by news out of Europe. This time it was Germany halting naked short selling. Chancellor Merkel's coalition wants to stop traders from buying credit insurance on government bonds they don't own ("naked swaps").

While there has been little support for this measure outside of Germany by governments or financial institutions, I think it is long over due. Many are crying foul, stating that it will increase interest rates, dry up liquidity, and prevent institutions from hedging their risks. I'm not so sure these would be bad things. I can think of good reasons to ban naked swaps.

I do not take this stance without due consideration because I have significant stakes in the financial sector, including positions in Bank of America Corporation (BAC), Citigroup, Inc. (C), E-Trade Financial Corporation (ETFC), General Electric Company (GE), Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. (GS) and Wells Fargo & Company (WFC).

The red coats are coming! This time they are from continental Europe. Today's drop was tied to tighter financial reform and a ban on naked short selling in Germany. Oh well, an excuse is an excuse. PPI did not even matter because of the price drop in oil of late, and we did see housing starts were up, but building permits were down.

Here were today's closing bell levels:

S&P 500 1,120.80 -16.14 (-1.42%)
Dow 10,510.95 -114.88 (-1.08%)
Nasdaq 2,317.26 -36.97 (-1.57%)

Last weekend French President Nicolas Sarkozy reportedly threatened to pull France out of the euro-zone if Germany did not agree to a comprehensive stabilization package for Greece, Agence France-Presse reported Friday, citing Spain's El Pais.

Spanish Prime Minister Jose Luis Rodriguez Zapatero reported Sarkozy's remarks to a meeting of leaders of his Socialist Party on Wednesday. However, a government source in Madrid denied the Sarkozy incident, telling the AFP that it is "lacking in any foundation."

As soon as the opening bell sounded this morning, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) plummeted more than 150 points - effectively ruining yesterday's 143-point gain. In fact, as I write this blog, the Dow fell past a 200-point loss.

Why the drop? Blame it on Greece, as the euro fell against the dollar thanks to worries that the Greek government will not be able to meet the rather stringent guidelines of its aid package. Moreover, the German government is set to provide most of the EU's support, and there is no guarantee that the electorate will back Chancellor Angela Merkel. Add this to the fact that German retail sales dropped more than 2% in March, and we have a full-blown European panic hitting Wall Street.

In an unexpected move, German chancellor, Angela Merkel, called for the "orderly insolvencies" of member states.

Germany says it wants to get tough on European Union members to prevent another Greek crisis. Germany has been against helping Greece, and only under pressure from the EU and the IMF did it agree to participate in the bailout.

Now, the Germans want to let member states default to avoid any repeat of the Greek crisis. What they fail to realize is that defaults are often messy and not orderly. What could happen is that confidence in the eurozone would disappear as would the euro.

A day after signaling rigorous scrutiny of Greece's austerity plan, German Chancellor Angela Merkel did an about-face, of sorts, Wednesday, vowing a quicker approval of aid to the deficit-plague euro-zone country. Not before, however, the chancellor's earlier remarks rattled bond, currency and stock markets around the globe.

Standing beside International Monetary Fund Managing Director Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Merkel said, "It's completely clear that the negotiations between the Greek government, the European Commission and the IMF need to be sped up now," Bloomberg News reported Wednesday.

Despite market sentiment that suggests a Greek debt default is ahead, it won't occur if Europe remains on the path it laid out Friday when the Mediterranean nation asked for implementation the European Union's bail-out package. And that path includes tangible evidence by Greece, forwarded to German officials, that it's implementing the first phase of austerity measures.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said "first I want to see the program," before Germany releases any funds to debt-plagued Greece, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday. Merkel's Christian Democratic party faces state-level elections in May at a time when most German citizens are opposed to the bailout.

The furor over the fraud charges brought against Goldman Sachs (GS) is spreading across the pond. Britain and Germany have jumped into the fray.

British Prime Minister Gordon Brown launched a scathing attack on Goldman by saying that the SEC investigation of Goldman revealed the "moral bankruptcy" of the firm. "This is probably one of the worst cases we have seen," he said.

The German government is considering legal action against Goldman. German bank IKB was one of the first casualties in the collateralized debt obligations (CDO) scandal, losing $150 million.

On Friday I sat at my desk ranting that Germany must help Greece without the International Monetary Fund. And over the weekend, the European Union finally drew up a plan to support its Greek brothers and sisters. This time, Germany is on board, bending to the ever-increasing pressure to do the right thing. However, the IMF was not left entirely out of the picture.

On April 11, the EU agreed to a Greek rescue package to subsidize Greek bonds at a 5% rate, about 20% less than current floating rates. The plan could cost 45 billion euros ($61 billion).

Germany, the European Union member with the largest and strongest economy, should get off their high horse and support Greece, not the International Monetary Fund (IMF) -- which to a large extent is the United States.

Greece is on the brink of disaster and for some reason the German government, following the sentiments of the man on the street, is willing to let the chips fall where they may. They do not seem to be able to grasp that the EU ship can only sail in one direction at a time and that half a ship will not sail at all.

Wednesday's key developments in "As the Eurozone Turns."

Not more than 12 hours after officials had signaled that France and Germany were nearing an agreement on any potential International Monetary Fund involvement in the Greece crisis, the euro plunged more than 1 cent to a 10-month low against the dollar, on concern that Greece is going to default.

The euro weakened 1.46 cents versus the dollar to $1.3352 on Wednesday at mid-day. Paul Donovan, UBS Investment Bank's deputy head of global economics told Bloomberg News Greece "is going to default at some point."