ATHENS, Greece — European leaders insist they want to keep Greece in the eurozone, but are putting off any agreement on how they hope to accomplish that. Greece says it, too, wants to stay in the eurozone, but until after elections it’s uncertain whether it can implement the austerity that Europe has set as a condition for doing so.
PARIS — The 17-country eurozone risks falling into a “severe recession,” the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development warned on Tuesday, as it called on governments and Europe’s central bank to act quickly to keep the slowdown from dragging down the global economy.
ATHENS, Greece — Critical talks to form a governing coalition in crisis-struck Greece foundered once more, leading the country one step closer to new elections — and bringing its continued presence in the euro into serious doubt.
WASHINGTON — JPMorgan Chase faced intense criticism Friday for claiming that a surprise $2 billion loss by one of its trading groups was the result of a sloppy but well-intentioned strategy to manage financial risk.
WASHINGTON — The elections that drove Nicolas Sarkozy out of power in France and left Greece scrambling to build a coalition government pose a financial threat to the United States that could undermine President Barack Obama’s efforts to cast himself as the agent of a U.S. economic revival.
PARIS — The day after Francois Hollande rode to power in France on a slogan of “change now,” the conversation in Europe was already different Monday: Austerity had become a dirty word.
Europe is economically big — very big. The 17 nation euro-zone is approximately equal to the size of the U.S. economy (depending upon how valuations are calculated in terms of currency conversions), and the more comprehensive 27 nation European Union (EU) is even bigger still. Given the tremendous economic interdependencies among countries of the world, when an economy as large as either of the above entities begins to experience significant economic problems, it is just a matter of time until those difficulties will be transmitted to the rest of the world.
FRANKFURT, Germany — Europe’s plan to fix its debt crisis by imposing budget cuts frayed Monday. Heavy selling rocked financial markets, uncertainty gripped two governments, and the economic outlook darkened across the continent.