EU

The debt crisis continuous to overwhelm Europe, and the prospects for countries most entrenched in debt, including Portugal, Italy, Greece, Spain, and Ireland, are dismal. Worse, whether these countries voluntarily leave or are coerced to leave, it is conceivable that Germany may opt to go solo...

German Chancellor Merkel wishes to stamp out any belief that there is a “magic bullet” to deal with the renewed euro zone crisis.  Merkel’s response to the crisis, however, is the fundamental cause of the second-stage of the crisis and it is the product of magical (un)realism – a series of...

To know the Washington Consensus as a regular citizen is to hate the Consensus.  The Washington Consensus, as the name implies, was an “inside the beltway” series of neo-liberal policies embraced by the IMF, the World Bank, and the U.S. government. It called for a minimal State and an all-...

Goldman Sachs' (NYSE: GS) rockstar Jim O'Neill reinforces his ongoing thesis that Greece-focused histeria is tedious at best. While he believes European Monetary System concerns are valid and sovereign debt issues will be there for the foreseeable future, he thinks Greece is small peanuts as long...

Greece is edging closer to having enough of the private sector holders of the country's outstanding debt accept a debt restructuring deal would see the face value of their bonds take a major, while reducing the financial burden of the nearly bankrupt Greek government. The agreement is needed in...

While the Occupy Wall Street movement set its sights on occupying a financial center, Germany has accomplished the vastly more impressive feat of occupying an entire nation: Greece. Germany has experience at occupying Greece, having done so during World War II. The art of occupying another...

Wednesday, the European Central Bank loaned the European banks 529 billion euros. It is the second long-term refinancing option (LTRO) the ECB has offered in the last few months, following a previous LTRO in December that saw 489 billion euros lent out. LTROs are just one of several possible open...

Shortly after signing an agreement with 25 other European Union leaders for a new fiscal treaty that would punish euro zone countries that failed to meet budget targets, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy dropped the bombshell that Spain was going to run a bigger 2012 deficit than the one it had...

The leaders of most European Union countries signed a new fiscal treaty aimed at preventing another sovereign debt crisis from happening. The leaders also hope that the treaty, also referred to as the fiscal compact, will reassure the markets that troubled euro zone members like Spain and Italy...

A Reuters report from Tuesday says that Iran is moving to accept gold and foreign currencies for its oil in the wake of economic sanctions against the country over its nuclear program. "Significant difficulties in making dollar payments to Iranian banks have forced Iran's trading partners to look...