Markets got a short burst of support this week when analysts said the European Central Bank (ECB) may restart a bond-buying exercise known as the Securities Markets Programme (SMP) after a 20-week hiatus. Unfortunately, SMP alone isn’t likely to be...

“There haven’t been any changes in our positions on bond purchases,” the Bundesbank growled last week. In other words: the purists in Frankfurt oppose a European Central Bank intervention on behalf of Spain or Italy. The notoriously long-termist German central...

For a glimpse of how much carmakers are feeling the debt-crisis heat, check out the fiery exchange between Fiat and Volkswagen this week. VW, whose declared goal is to overtake Toyota and GM to become world Nr. 1 by 2018,...

The men in black are back in Athens. Greece is hosting members of the so-called Troika, representatives from the euro zone, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, who are there to assess how far the country may...

Spain may turn to one of Greece’s strategies when it tried to push back against German pressure to cut costs. Spanish news website El Confidencial reported that Spain doesn’t rule out leaving the euro, citing “sources very close to Mariano...

Here’s one to add to your list of debt-crisis ironies: Europe’s debt-reduction champion in the first quarter was… Greece. True, the much-maligned Greeks were challenged by the parsimonious Finns, but in the end it was no contest. Greek debt fell...

Another week, another rescue fund that is being tapped in Europe. The Spanish region of Valencia will call on the government’s 18 billion-euro regional rescue fund, the local authority said on July 20. El Pais reported that Murcia, in southern...

Briefly yesterday, the buzz was that Spain could use its package of as much as 100 billion euros ($123 billion) to do more than just recapitalize its banks. Perhaps, thanks to legal trickery buried in Spain’s financing accord, Prime Minister...