Germany’s latest strategy for resolving the euro crisis has been emerging over the past few days. It will stand its first test tomorrow when euro-area finance ministers gather in Brussels to prepare a leaders’ summit for Dec. 9. Chancellor Angela...
Read more »“Euro Super Club”
Irish street protests against austerity measures have been relatively restrained
Coping With Austerity
On the same day that German Chancellor Angela Merkel again swatted down the idea of issuing joint euro bonds to help ease sovereign debt in peripheral euro zone nations, Germany’s own bond issuance, which fell short of objectives, caused market...
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Bloomberg data
The ECB’s Wall Against Contagion
The European Central Bank added another layer to the wall it’s building to stem contagion from the euro debt crisis. The bank added to its purchases of government bonds last week, settling another €7.99 billion in the five days to...
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Pedro Armestre/AFP/Getty Images
Partido Popular's Mariano Rajoy
Has Spain Turned to the Right?
Mariano Rajoy’s staying power has paid off. After two previous election defeats under his leadership, the Partido Popular won an absolute majority in the Spanish general election yesterday, giving the country’s new conservative prime minister-elect a clear mandate for change....
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Jock Fistick/Bloomberg
EU Warns Belgium Over Debt — Now What?
Belgium has been warned. The nation of almost 11 million was told this week by the European Commission that it may be subjected to sanctions after failing to reduce its budget deficit. Belgium now owes the equivalent of just over...
Read more »Must Democracy Be Sacrificed to Save Europe?
The European debt crisis has played havoc on the continent’s politicians. This year alone four countries have seen their governments fall—Ireland, Portugal, Greece, and Italy—the last two “without a shove from voters,” reported Bloomberg News yesterday in a story about...
Read more »JPMorgan, Goldman Keep Italy Debt Risk in Dark
The European debt crisis lurches on as the uncertainty around government finances continues. Yet how much do banks know and choose not to disclose about the state of the debt markets? In this report, Christine Harper and Michael J. Moore...
Read more »Justice Ministry Is Measure of Berlusconi’s Influence
What role are Italy’s elected parliamentarians to play now? The job of governing the country is going to be taken over by a team of technocrats led by Mario Monti. An academic career at one of Milan’s top private universities,...
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Mariano Rajoy leads in Spanish polls
Spain’s New Premier Will Face Impossible Equation
Angela Merkel’s call for a “breakthrough to a new Europe” will find sympathizers well beyond the CDU party members she was addressing in Leipzig today. Many in the euro-zone’s most indebted countries will applaud the concept, even without knowing the...
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EU Is Victim of Bystander Syndrome
Are our politicians all victims of the bystander effect? Have we largely succumbed like people in an emergency situation who stand by as if waiting for someone else to resolve it? Social psychologists have documented the bystander effect many times....
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