IMF

The bustup between the European Commission and International Monetary Fund got nastier today when Olli Rehn, the commission’s pointman on the economic crisis, said he is feeling … well, all wet. “I don’t think it is fair and just that...

The euro area has just come as close as it ever has to learning that what the European Central Bank gives, it can also take away. Before euro-area ministers agreed a last-ditch bailout in the small hours of Monday morning,...

Meeting budget-deficit targets isn’t France’s strong suit, but it’s looking increasingly likely that President Francois Hollande will be given some breathing space next week, when the European Commission puts out economic forecasts for the euro zone. The previous forecasts, in...

Spain’s 32-month experiment with austerity-at-all-costs, as devised by Angela Merkel’s budget ultras, is drawing to a close. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy oversaw 62 billion euros of tax hikes and spending cuts, 851,000 job losses and three different deficit targets, all...

October 31, 2011 Papandreou Calls Referendum on New Greek Bailout Plan Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou will put the European Union’s new agreement on financing for Greece to a referendum, saying he had faith in receiving support from Greeks. The...

The European permanent rescue fund, the ESM, is moving into a new building next year to accommodate the larger requirements of the institution inaugurated just over two weeks ago. A new building in Luxembourg for a new fund — but...

On this day in 2009, German Chancellor Angela Merkel was working on her second-term tax cuts and French President Nicolas Sarkozy was preparing a speech on territorial reform. With the euro at an uncomfortably high $1.49, then-European Central Bank President...

The market is beginning to hum over the prospect that Mario Draghi’s bond-purchase plan won’t be enough — or not fleshed out enough — to live up to his big-bang promise that the European Central Bank will do whatever it...

Europe’s debt crisis only seems like it has gone on forever. This series of blog posts looks at headlines from this date in previous years that highlight the roots, twists and turns of the current turmoil. August 28, 2011 IMF’s...