European Financial Crisis
In April, Germany‘s central bank, the Bundesbank, was optimistic. Springtime would bring a rapid recovery from the winter blues and an increase in investment, it said. “Business activity expectations for the German economy have recovered quickly and strikingly in the last three months,” the Bundesbank wrote in its report. The bank’s optimism, however, may…
For a time in 2012, it seemed that hardly a day would go by without another protest in Southern Europe with signs depicting Chancellor Angela Merkel as a Nazi. Germany, according to the euro-crisis narrative then and now, is the evil virus causing the pain and suffering in austerity-strapped countries such as Spain, Greece…
Appearances are deceiving on Klafthmonos Square in downtown Athens. Three imposing bronze statues, the “Monument to National Reconciliation,” shimmer in the bright spring sunshine. But demonstrators at the base of the monument bring to mind the original purpose of the square, the name of which translates into “Lamentation Square.” Until 1911, when the Greek…
Wolfgang Schäuble, the German finance minister, and Vítor Gaspar, his counterpart in Portugal, announced a plan on Wednesday to use the German state development bank to help set up a financial institution to assist Portuguese under age 25 in getting jobs or training. Earlier this week, Ursula von der Leyen, the German labor minister, signed…
In order to view this feature, you must download the latest version of flash player here. ATHENS — “Five euros only, just 5 euros,” whispered Maria, a young prostitute with sunken cheeks and bedraggled hair, as she pitched herself forward from the shadows of a graffiti-riddled alley in central Athens on a recent weeknight. As…
FRANKFURT — A top official of the Federal Reserve on Tuesday urged the European Central Bank to take more aggressive action to restart growth, warning that the euro area risked becoming mired in the same kind of economic stagnation that has plagued Japan for two decades, with far-reaching implications for the global economy. James Bullard,…
Stylia Kampani did everything right, and she still doesn’t know what the future holds for her. The 23-year-old studied international relations in her native Greece and spent a year at the University of Bremen in northern Germany. She completed an internship at the foreign ministry in Athens and worked for the Greek Embassy in…
Miguel Blesa, the former executive chairman of Caja Madrid, has become the first prominent Spanish banker to go behind bars since the start of the financial crisis. He is accused of leaving the company saddled with huge losses because of an ill-advised takeover of a bank based in Miami in 2008. Caja Madrid was one…
The controls and protective measures implemented so far by Cyprus to combat money laundering have “systemic deficiencies.” That’s the finding of an expert report authored by financial advisory firm Deloitte, together with Moneyval, the Council of Europe‘s money-laundering watchdog, which paints a far more dismal picture of the country’s financial sector than had previously…