Good morning, New York Low yielding assets, and sausages: tofu and a cornucopia of meats to illustrate various credit strategies one might deploy to confront the challenge confronting savers in the current low-yield environment. There are some rabbits too, but they're not for eating... Death Star to nowhere, sadly: while outwardly sensible, the petition to the White House to secure resources and funding, and begin construction of a Death Star by 2016 runs into some serious problems when looked at closely. That said, we'd still like to see the official response. All of this has happened before and will happen again, sovereign pari passu edition: Joseph has a selection of pari passu clauses in prospectuses for sovereign debt issued in the six weeks or so since the Second Circuit ruling. You know, when the Second Circuit chucked out Argentina's appeal against having to pay bond holdouts, having had "little difficulty concluding" that the defaulted debt's dusty, old - but contractually standard - pari passu clause demanded rateable payment. Bizarre. The Bundesbank cut its growth forecasts for Germany from 1.6 percent to just 0.4 per cent for 2013. Germany's central bank does, however, currently expect 1.9 per cent growth in 2014. On Thursday, the ECB also cut forecasts for the eurozone. More goes to charity in the US as tax deduction is seen as under threat in fiscal cliff negotiations. While the deduction on donations is unlikely to go completely, a limit may be put on it. Charities and philanthropists are stepping up efforts to take full advantage of the break while it still exists. The judge urges "global peace" between Apple and Samsung. Judge Lucy Koh oversaw the $1bn award of patent damages to Apple against Samsung in August. She made the final plea on Thursday at an appeal hearing. Markets: European stocks are steady at 18-month highs ahead of Friday's keenly anticipated US jobs data, with investors hoping recent evidence of improvement in the world's two biggest economies will not be rendered moot by a fiscal cliff plunge. However, worries about the prospects for the European economy is keeping any end of week bullishness to a minimum. FT's Global Market Overview