Europe may already have passed its biggest stress test. The euro has rallied 8 percent from a four-year low last month. Greece, Spain and Portugal have managed to sell 50 billion euros ($64 billion) of debt since May 10 when the need to save the single currency forced finance ministers to create a nearly $1 [...]

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European banking shares indicate a Greek debt default may be just a matter of time. Investors have already pushed down financial stocks enough to imply the “erosion” in book value that may result from losses tied to a sovereign debt restructuring, said Dirk Hoffmann-Becking, an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein in London. A Bloomberg index of [...]

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European Central Bank President Jean- Claude Trichet and Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithnerdiverged on prescriptions to sustain growth, with Europe set to tighten budgets and the U.S. seeking stronger domestic demand. The impact of narrower budget gaps “on growth could not be considered negative because it would improve confidence,” Trichet told reporters yesterday after meeting with Group [...]

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Greek demonstrations against government austerity measures turned deadly when three people were killed after protesters set fire to a bank in central Athens. Fire officials at the scene said they discovered three bodies in the building, according to a fire-department statement sent by text message today. The building, located near the Greek parliament, housed a branch [...]

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Euro-region ministers agreed to a 110 billion-euro ($146 billion) rescue package for Greeceto prevent a default and stop the worst crisis in the currency’s 11-year history from spreading through the rest of the bloc. The first payment will be made before Greece’s next bond redemption on May 19, said Jean-Claude Juncker after chairing a meeting of euro-region [...]

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March 30 (Bloomberg) — Greek seven-year notes fell in the first day of trading and an auction of 12-year bonds garnered demand for less than half the debt offered on concern Europe’s most indebted nation will keep struggling to fund itself. The drop drove yields on the 5 billion euros ($6.7 billion) of seven-year notes [...]

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The worst ofGreece’s financial crisis is over and other European nations won’t follow in its path, said former European Commission President Romano Prodi. “For Greece, the problem is completely over,” said Prodi, who was also Italian prime minister, in an interview in Shanghai today. “I don’t see any other case now in Europe. I don’t think [...]

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“Who you gonna call?” wasn’t just a catchphrase in the 1984 film “Ghostbusters.” If the worst happens in Greece, Spain or Portugal, we’re going to hear it all over again, and Europe’s taxpayers will want to know the answer. The European Union? The European Central Bank? Or the International Monetary Fund? Senior officials, including ECB [...]

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Greece’s pledge to ramp up planned budget-deficit cuts by half failed to yield commitments of financial assistance from Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, to help solve its financial crisis. German Chancellor Angela Merkel said a meeting tomorrow with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou won’t be “about aid commitments.” Her finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, said the deficit-reduction measures announced in [...]

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While the eyes of the world focus on Greece’s debt crisis, investors in Edinburgh are busy preparing for the U.K. to be next. Turcan Connell, which caters to rich families, expects the pound to lose between 20 percent and 30 percent against the dollar once investors turn their sights on Britain as the government sells [...]

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