Underwhelmed?

The European politicians have delivered yet another package to break the Eurozone sovereign debt and banking crisis. Having read a few reports by the sell-side I get the impression that in general there is some relief that the  politicians managed to get a deal done but besides that the analyst community does not see that the low point in the crisis has been reached already. Reasons given are that the plan lacks details, does not solve the sovability issues on the table and essentially largely kicks the can down the road again.
Personally, I beg to differ. First, it was clear from the start that the plan would lack details (what else could one have expected?), but this does not make it any worse. Yes, uncertainty surrounding the Greek PSI deal as well as the likely success of the changes in the EFSF will prevail and yes, we are likely to get more bad news from several Eurozone countries/banks. However, a voluntary Greek solution is far better than a hard default would have been and given the bank recapitalisation scheme should not threaten the banking system. Furthermore, The ECB provides unlimited term funding (with the 13m tender in December lasting into 2013), engages in a new covered bonds buying programme to kickstart primary market issuance and some Eurozone countries will likely reintroduce state guarantess for new bank bonds. Additionally, the new EFSF wil be able to insure new issuance by Italy, Spain and Belgium for about the next three years (if it has to insure all new issuance). This drastically reduces the risk of a buyers strike for these countries. Given that all three countries at current yields do not suffer from insolvency but rather from the risk of illiquidity, these measures - together with the ability of the ECB to continue buying bonds in the secondary market - have the ability to break the sovereign debt-deflation spiral. In turn, this would also provide some relief for the asset side of the banking system.
Overall, I see a substantial probability that (on the assumption the ECB can continue with its SMP and Italy adheres to the promised structural reforms) the joint Eurozone sovereign debt and banking crisis has reached a tipping point. With that the markets should turn their focus away from a systemic financial crisis and move towards a focus on growth and inflation. Here the news out of the US remains constructive and I also expect the Asian central banks to take their foot from the brake as inflation slows down markedly over the next 3-6 months. In the Eurozone, the risk of a wave of state and banking defaults has been reduced drastically (as states and banks are being kept liquid) but the price will be more austerity/structural reforms and hence weak growth in the affected countries. Italy and Spain promise to be in recession in 2012 and I expect French growth to be weak (albeit above 0%). However, I remain optimistic for the German economy given that German corporates should continue to gain market share in world markets and the domestic German economy should see an increasing contribution to growth amid high employment, increasing wage pressures and record low real interest rates. As a result, overall Eurozone growth should be relatively low but positive and I do not see a Eurozone recession. In this environment, I expect the ECB to continue with its liquidity provision measures and SMP buying. However, I do not expect the ECB to cut rates anytime soon.