Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Financial Crisis Exposes German Leader's Weaknesses

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HOW MERKEL LOST HER MOJO

The financial crisis and the threat of recession are revealing German Chancellor Angela Merkel's weaknesses and could contribute to a dramatic change in her party's prospects in next year's election. The Social Democrats, sensing an opportunity, are already planning their attack… By Roland Nelles and Ralf Neukirch, Spiegel International

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Sunday, October 19, 2008

Financial Crisis: USA & EU seeking series of summits

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The leaders of the U.S., France and the European Commission agreed yesterday to ask other world leaders to take part in a series of summits on the global financial crisis, with the first held in the U.S. sometime soon after the Nov. 4 presidential election.

President
George W. Bush, French President Nicolas Sarkozy and European Commission President Jose Barroso said in a joint statement after a three-hour meeting at Camp David, the presidential retreat, that they would maintain coordinated steps to solve the crisis in the global economy… bloomberg.com

Germany’s biggest post-war bailout designed to ward off financial meltdown has passed on October 17, 2008.

The huge 500 billion euro safety package has been signed into law after passing overwhelmingly in Germany’s upper and lower chambers of parliament… euronews.net

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Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Financial Crisis: Markets surge after bank bailouts

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After one of the biggest one day gains in its history yesterday, Wall Street may find added impetus today on the back of news that the US Treasury is expected to inject 91 billion euros of capital into the country’s top nine banks.

It is the first tranche of a 182 billion euro deal announced yesterday…

European markets also rose with news of massive banking bail-outs by numerous EU countries.
Asian stocks also surged shortly when trading began this morning, with Japan’s Nikkei up more than 12 percent, after plunging more than 24 percent last week … Euronews
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Sunday, October 12, 2008

Global crisis: Sarkozy and Merkel prepared an EU plan

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COLOMBEY-LES-DEUX-EGLISES, France - French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel paved the way on Saturday for European measures to tackle the global financial crisis but revealed little about their plans.

Sarkozy, whose country holds the rotating six-month presidency of the European Union, has called an emergency meeting on Sunday of the 15 countries that have the euro as their currency, with a view to taking steps to stop the rot.

"We have prepared a certain number of decisions that we will submit to our partners in the presence of the president of the European Commission and the governor of the (European) central bank. You understand that it is not appropriate for us to talk about it," Sarkozy told a joint news conference with Merkel… By Francois Murphy, Reuters (France)

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