Debt

Article Information: Category: EA April 2011; Created on 08 April 2011

The eurozone’s sovereign debt-saga seems to be a never-ending story. But like all financial crises, it will end at some point. Will the endgame involve a default of one or more eurozone countries? Would that lead to a partial or full break-up of the eurozone? Overall, what could be the consequences for the eurozone economy?

Article Information: Category: March 2011; Created on 25 March 2011

Concluding their two-day summit meeting, EU leaders said that they had achieved consensus a set of measures to tackle the eurozone crisis – including better ways to handle any assault on the euro via the acutely beleaguered economy of Portugal.

Article Information: Category: March 2011; Created on 23 March 2011

The EU summit meeting on March 24-5 has been billed for months as a crucial moment, a deadline for the European Union leaders to sign off on a long-promised grand bargain to shore up the credibility of the euro. The ambitions of the summit are twofold: to consolidate the ultimate solvency of weaker member states saddled with crushing sovereign-debt loads and also to put in place new rules aimed at preventing similar crises in future. Success depends on a central trade-off: Germany and its prosperous EU neighbors, including France, will pledge more funds for bail-out loans in exchange for eurozone-wide acceptance of measures promoting fiscal convergence and movement toward common economic governance.

Article Information: Category: March 2011; Created on 09 March 2011

This month is supposed to mark a turning point for the euro. Two EU summit meetings on bolstering the euro and the eurozone will happen in Brussels -- the first this Friday March 11 and the second, more important one on March 25. This week, fresh urgency was added to the crisis and the EU’s ability to restore confidence when the markets raised the interest rates being charged Portugal for its government bonds on March 9 to an all-time high that Lisbon admits is “unsustainable” as the price of rolling over its sovereign debt.

Article Information: Category: March 2011; Created on 04 March 2011

Ahead of two summit meetings this month to bolster EU economic governance and strengthen confidence in the euro, attention has focused mainly on greater fiscal discipline by member states. An alternative insight – that the most immediate danger lies in under-capitalized banks in many eurozone countries – comes from U.S. economist Barry Eichengreen, a professor at University of California, Berkeley, who has followed the single currency closely for a long time.

European Institute

Debt Default by EU Government? Messy, But Probably Not The End of The Eurozone

EU Leaders Claim “Grand Bargain,” With Loose Ends -- Will Bond Markets Share This Confident View? (3/25)

EU Summit Seeks "Grand Bargain" on Euro: Will New Pact Convince Markets? (3/23)

Crucial EU Summits on Eurozone. Bid to Convince Markets Now and in Future. (3/9)

In Bolstering Euro, EU Should Concentrate on Banks, Not on National Bail-Outs (3/04)

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