Need to know: 

European leaders spent 14 hours talking and now have a plan for helping out the continent's banks. 

They've agreed to use a eurozone bailout fund to recapitalize struggling banks and create a banking union aimed at stemming a vicious cycle of bank bailouts that drive up sovereign debt. 

The move is expected to lower borrowing costs for some of the eurozone's most indebted members. 

Want to know: 

Americans are making more money. They're just not spending it. 

Consumer spending in the US remained flat in May and April's gain wasn't as strong as initially reported, the Commerce Department's latest data show. 

This comes as personal incomes and saving inched upward. 

Just because: 

There's more bad news for BlackBerry. 

Research in Motion said it plans to cut 5,000 jobs and delay the release of its newest operating platform. 

Dull but important: 

Big changes could be coming to your credit card bills and home mortgages.

Bank of England Governor Mervy King is calling for an overhaul in the way in which LIBOR is calculated, the Wall Street Journal reported.

LIBOR underpins interest rates for just about everything, and Barclays has recently been fined for attempting to manipulate the key rate to help it boost trading profits. 

Strange but true: 

Brazil's richest man isn't exactly going brooke, but he has managed to lose half his fortune. He's also lost his title as Brazil's richest man. 

Need to know: 

Demand for durable goods in the US bounced back in May. 

Orders for long-lasting items like toasters, refrigerators, cars and airplans were up 1.1 percent, according to the latest data from the US Commerce Department. 

While it is a positive, the US manufacturing sector isn't quite back with a bang, according to Reuters. It's just not quite falling apart.

Want to know: 

It's going to be a while until Facebook shares get back up to their IPO price. 

Analyst estimates suggested it could take Facebook a year to reach that $38 a share offering price, the Wall Street Journal said. 

Facebook shares closed at $33.10 yesterday. 

Dull but important: 

Barclays was fined $450 million by the US and UK for attempted LIBOR manipulation.

Barclays traders worked with colleagues to tailor LIBOR estimates from the bank to benefit the banks derivatives trading positions, Financial Times said, citing a settlement between the bank and a US regulatory agency. 

LIBOR, the London interbank offered rate, impacts the interest rates on pretty much everything. 

Just because: 

Silicon Valley is heading to London. 

The Silicon Valley Bank, which is said to back companies including Mozilla, the brains behind the Firefox browser, is opening an east London office aimed at profiting from its growing start up scene. 

London has the third most successful ecosystem for digital innovation, GlobalPost's Barry Neild notes. 

Strange but true: 

Italian businesses grew more confident in recent months even as the euro crisis dragged on and an increasing number of its neighbors sought bailouts from the EU and IMF. 

Need to know:
The EU brain trust is scheduled to meet this week, and the world is eagerly waiting to hear what they have to say. 

In recent days: Spain moved closer to picking up its bank bailout euros. Fitch cut Cyprus' credit rating.

Greece got a new coalition government in place that’s trying to push back its deadline to meet EU budget deficit targets. 

Chatter about a banking union is growing louder, and everyone from George Soros to Mario Monti has been speculating on how long the euro has to live.  

Want to know:
There’s big currency trouble in emerging markets, Bloomberg reported.

Emerging market currencies including Brazil’s real, Russia’s ruble and India’s rupee are quickly losing value as investors are turning a cold shoulder to what were until recently the world’s hottest markets.

Each of these countries has more than just currency troubles, Bloomberg noted.

Brazil’s consumer default rate is at its highest level in three years. Prices for Russian oil are at an 18-month low, India’s budget deficit is growing as policy continues to hamper growth prospects and even China’s economic boom is cooling.

Dull but important:
India may have a plan to catch its falling rupee.

India’s finance ministry and central bank are expected to announce efforts to allow companies to invest more in local bond markets to help prop up the currency, the Wall Street Journal reported. 

Just because:

As downgrades go, this one was a doozy.

Four months ago, Moody's warned banks that they were in trouble.

Today, the ratings agency followed through on that threat.

It downgraded 15 big banks in the UK, Canada, Europe and the US, including Citigroup, Bank of America and Morgan Stanley.

Yeah, it's a big deal.

Here's how Moody's explained the move, which came after the US markets closed, though not before the S&P 500 Index had dropped 2.2 percent on rumors that the bad news was coming:

“All of the banks affected by today’s actions have significant exposure to the volatility and risk of outsized losses inherent to capital-markets activities” Moody’s Global Banking Managing Director Greg Bauer said in a statement, printed in full here on Business Insider. "However, they also engage in other, often market leading business activities that are central to Moody’s assessment of their credit profiles. These activities can provide important ‘shock absorbers’ that mitigate the potential volatility of capital markets operations, but they also present unique risks and challenges."

So what's going on? And what's this likely to mean?