It’s been quite a year, but leading economists warn that next year could be worse. The euro crisis is still unresolved, plus the economic outlook has darkened. Nineteen months since the first bailout of Greece, the euro zone seems to...
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Jock Fistick/Bloomberg
Euro-Zone Calm Before the Storm?
Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg
The Euro Crisis Is ‘Single Biggest Threat’ to U.K. Recovery
The euro crisis isn’t just affecting economic growth in the U.K., but may also unleash another credit crunch. Spencer Dale, the Bank of England’s chief economist and member of its rate-setting Monetary Policy Committee, pointed to the signs in an...
Read more »Italy’s Debt Looks More Sustainable
Italy’s paying more to borrow money, but exactly how much more the government will end up paying to finance itself over the next few years isn’t easy to assess—and it’s certainly more involved than simply looking at the yield from...
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It’s Still Up to the ECB to Stem the Crisis
The euro-zone leaders adopted a pact to move toward fiscal union and stepped up stabilization measures to face the immediate crisis. This is progress, but as Thomas Mayer, chief economist at Deutsche Bank, told me this morning: The leaders have...
Read more »S&P Tells It Like It Is in Europe
In some ways it wasn’t surprising when Standard & Poor’s warned late on Dec. 5 that it was putting 15 of 17 countries using the euro on negative credit watch. The euro zone members could see their ratings lowered by...
Read more »ECB May Skirt Funding Role With IMF Help, Puts Focus on Euro-Zone Fiscal Rules
The European Central Bank may have found a way around the restrictions on it helping fund euro member governments: national central banks will give money to the International Monetary Fund and ask them to do the job. As James Neuger...
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