The sovereign debt crisis keeps on threatening to spill out of Europe and spread to America. A French-Belgian bank called Dexia SA, which is one of Europe’s twenty largest banks in terms of assets, is being broken up by the… Continue Reading →

Venezelos, the Greek Finance Minister, said, “Greece is not a scapegoat of the Euro area. Greece is a proud country.” Proud or not, they are about to run out of money. Ominous signs abound: EU finance ministers just reached a… Continue Reading →

Germans love austerity. After World War II austerity, hard work, and self-sacrifice rebuilt their country from the ashes of the fire bombings. But then Martin Luther was a German, and he started the Protestant Reformation. To Protestants work is like… Continue Reading →

What is the relationship of Germany to the rest of Europe? Sounds like history class. But it’s what the EU is all about. England understands this better than anybody else. They were anxious to start the EU after World War… Continue Reading →

In August a quite dramatic event occurred in Germany, and it escaped all the news cameras. No one reported on it until today. It was so quiet, but so pervasive and decisive, that no one knew about it until now…. Continue Reading →

Merkel delivered on her promise to ratify the agreement in July about the ECB. Its budget will be expanded to 440 billion euros. It will have more powers to lend to countries and banks in the EU. But Merkel’s margin… Continue Reading →

Finnish lawmakers yesterday and Germans today ratified expanding the European Bailout fund to 440 billion euros. They have agreed to let the ECB use the fund more flexibly. The ECB will be allowed to buy bonds, lend to countries before… Continue Reading →

Tomorrow is the vote in the German Parliament about whether they want to support the July agreement between Merkel and Sarkozi. Are they going to increase the bailout fund to 440 billion euros or not? The United States wants it… Continue Reading →

The ECB is caught in the middle. Most of the states in the European Union want it to be active. They are counting on it to solve the European debt crisis by rate cuts, extensive lending, and large scale asset… Continue Reading →

Germany, the Netherlands, and Finland don’t want to boost the EU Bailout Fund. Germany sees practical problems with it. The German Central Bank says the ECB would violate its charter if it contributed to the fund. It’s not allowed to… Continue Reading →