The Federal Reserve is reporting that between July to September this year, bank credit lending was up 10 percent — the highest rate since before the Lehman Brothers collapse in 2008. It’s a sign that the economy is getting back on track, but it’s not out of the woods yet.

In a major step toward ending Europe's two-year-long debt crisis, leaders from around the continent met today in Brussels to hammer out a new debt-reduction pledge. The result is something of a pledge that goes like this: [raise your right hand.] "I promise to keep my country's budget deficit under control. I also promise to let the European Court of Justice scrutenize laws in my country that may allow too much wiggle room on deficit spending." We spoke with Jennifer McKeown, a senior European economist at Capital Economics in London, about the long-term impact of the deal.

Markets today were like a huffy kid who stomps off because Santa only brought him two out of the three of the gifts on his list. Santa is the European Central Bank. Ahead of the latest crisis summit tomorrow, the ECB offered two nice presents: a quarter-percent cut in interest rates and an offer to lend cheaply to the banking system for as long as three years.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy — “Merkozy” for short — laid out their plan in an open letter to European Council President Herman Van Rompuy today. The plan calls for stricter budget controls for eurozone nations and comes before the regions leaders meet again tomorrow evening and Friday. We spoke with Matthias Matthijs, a professor of political economy at both the Johns Hopkins and American Universities.

It could just be a case of the blahs. Investors didn’t seem eager to place any grand bets today on what European leaders will agree on when they meet later this week. And the stakes continue to be dizzyingly high. We talked with Barry Ritholtz, CEO of Fushion IQ, author of Bailout Nation and “The Big Picture” blogger at Ritholtz.com. Ritholtz says investors are stuck in a seemingly endless pattern of waiting and waiting for Europe’s leaders to reach some sort of deal. And, like the characters in a Beckett play, the wait may never end.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy took a pretty dramatic and united step forward today. They jointly pushed for a new European treaty that, if ratified, would alter the actually treaty that created the euro zone. It will create a system of budget cops to enforce automatic penalties onnations running deficits greater than 3 percent of their total budget. Consider yourself on notice, Greece, Portugal, Ireland, Italy, and Spain. Even though it’s still in the planning stages, the European Central Bank could lower interest rates when it meets Thursday.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the U.S. created 120,000 new jobs in the month of November, while the national unemployment rate fell to a surprising 8.6 percent. It’s the lowest the rate has been in two and a half years. Still, it’s not all good news. Borrowing from Dickens, the overall economic picture in the U.S. tells a tale of two economies — one that’s very profitable for corporations and another that’s devastating for American workers.

The Institute for Supply Management’s monthly Purchasing Managers Index is closely watched because the people who do the ordering in factories often have a pretty good sense of the mood of their bosses. A reading above 50 indicates expansion in the manufacturing sector, while a number below 50 means contraction. Today’s number was 52.7 for November, up from 50.8 in October. Better than expected.

Investors woke this morning to news that six central banks, led by the U.S. Federal Reserve, acted jointly to inject dollars into the life support system keeping European banks alive. The move was meant to restore confidence in the global financial system and show that the central banks will take action to prevent a repeat of the financial crisis of 2008.