The seamless partnership France and Germany forged in past weeks now shows signs of fraying as both countries spar over the role of the European Central Bank (ECB) and proposals to mutualize euro zone debt. By pooling financial liabilities and assets across the 17-nation euro zone, stronger nations like Germany and France could back …
debt crisis
Whither the European (Dis)Union?
Is significantly greater integration the surest way to prevent both the euro and even the entire European Union from blowing apart? Or is EU federation–and the basic powers national governments now wield being weakened in the process–exactly the kind of radical fusion certain to send countries jealous of their sovereignty fleeing …
Europe’s Debt Tragicomedy: Horror Show Turns Into Shambolic Farce
There are occasions when even the scariest of movies will push the atmosphere of dread, danger, and doom a bit too far, and leave the scenario of improbable horror and panic feeling just stupid. That moment has arrived in Nightmare On Euro Street, as people who watched Europe’s escalating crisis through their fingers in terror begin …
At Cannes G20 Summit, Europe’s Currency and Leadership Pushed to the Brink
They may be clichés, but the phrases “life isn’t always fair”, and “things don’t necessarily work out the way you’d like” are cruel realities that French President Nicolas Sarkozy has to be ruefully mulling over just now. Rather than basking in the sunlight of a France-presided G20 summit meant to usher in major …
Sarkozy Uses Europe’s Debt Crisis To Signal Re-Election Bid
Given the enormous stakes involved in it, one would have thought the big news Thursday was the accord hammered out earlier in the day by European Union leaders to deal with the euro zone’s monstrous debt crisis. One would have thought so, but one was wrong.
The real news Thursday was French President Nicolas Sarkozy revealing …
EU Debt Deal: Déjà Vu All Over Again?
Let’s be fair: the 4 AM announcement Thursday by European Union leaders of a new and urgently needed package of measures to confront the euro zone debt crisis is a significant break-through that may eventually represent the corner being turned in the seemingly endless drama. And because the accord pledges massive sums of money to …
Even Facing Debt Crises, Europe’s Welfare Systems Aren’t (Necessarily) Doomed
Wanted to weigh in with an additional post on the good BBC News piece by Gavin Hewitt that I flagged yesterday. Its main thrust is French Socialist candidate François Hollande—and the European left in general—needs to come up with new solutions to the current economic crisis (and more broadly, compelling visions for the future) if …
Channelling Buffet, French Rich Demand Higher Taxes
It’s a small, real-time world, and it’s now evident no niche is too elite or removed from it to withstand a fad that has gone viral. Take France’s rich folk, who have turned billionaire businessman Warren Buffet into the hottest trend-setter among the globe’s super-wealthy by echoing his attention-grabbing New York Times …
The Merkel-Sarkozy Summit: A Minimalist Affair
It says a lot about the dramatic crisis facing the euro zone when the leaders of its two biggest economies go into a highly scrutinized summit amid promises, assurances, and even a form of hype stressing that nothing much will come from it. But that’s precisely the buzz surrounding this afternoon’s Paris meeting between German …
After the Riots: the Economic Cost of London’s Mayhem
The shocking violence that rocked some of the U.K.’s biggest cities has ebbed, but the country is still counting the costs of the destruction — not only in lives (so far, five), but to property, tourism, and the difficult work of repairing the country’s reputation. The riots came at a wretched moment for the British—plunged in the …
After Downgrade, Chinese Press Blasts U.S. Borrowing
Official Chinese media have lashed out at American debt following rating agency Standard & Poor’s decision to downgrade the U.S. credit rating. “The U.S. government has to come to terms with the painful fact that the good old days when it could just borrow its way out of messes of its own making are finally gone,” Xinhua, the …
Can French Bank Deal On Greek Debt Save The Euro?
Could the end of the Greek debt crisis be in view—and with it the pressure that has put the very future of the euro in jeopardy? That’s the hope behind a draft deal French President Nicolas Sarkozy confirmed Monday, under which France’s private banks holding some $21 billion in Greek sovereign debt would roll nearly 70% of that …
The Political Machinations Underlying Greece’s Debt Crisis
Joanna Kakissis examines for TIME the anti-austerity protests in Greece this week. After a year of austerity economics, even some formerly complacent Greeks have taken to the streets of Athens to protest Premier George Papandreou and his PASOK political party and their plan to institute an IMF-mandated second round of budget counts that …