eurozone austerity

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Eurozone Debt Crisis Exposes What EU Leaders Fear Most

By , Associate Editor, Money Morning • @DavidGZeiler -

European Union leaders have seemingly changed their tune lately on how best to deal with the long-running Eurozone debt crisis.

Increasingly, EU politicians have been sounding the theme that economic growth - not Eurozone austerity - is the answer, and that deadlines set for reductions in public spending needed to be loosened.

It started about a month ago, with none other than European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso.

"While I think this policy [of austerity] is fundamentally right, I think it has reached its limits," Barroso said. "A policy to be successful not only has to be properly designed, it has to have the minimum of political and social support."

Shortly afterward, French Prime Minister Pierre Moscovici chimed in, "We're witnessing the end of the dogma of austerity."

Meanwhile, the European Commission seemed to confirm the policy shift when it recently extended the deadlines for most of the troubled EU nations to fix their budget deficits.

News headlines throughout Europe trumpeted the "end of austerity."

But what the EU leaders have really done is buy themselves more time by stretching out the Eurozone austerity policies - which are mostly still in place - over a longer period of time.

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The Eurozone Hangs On By a Whisker

By , Money Morning -

Four days after the Italian elections, only one thing is really clear: A majority of Italian voters have rejected austerity.
The problem is, their victory came up short by the slimmest of margins.
0.36%.
That's the difference between a firm new government that could move Italy out of the Eurozone and the constitutional logjam Italian voters woke up to the next day.
Here’s why that's likely bad news for us all...

Berlusconi is Back, and So Is the Eurozone Debt Crisis

By , Money Morning -

Since the beginning of the year, the markets have been behaving as if the Eurozone debt crisis has been magically solved.
Yields on Spanish and Italian debt are trading more than 1% lower than at their peak, while world stock markets have soared close to all-time highs.
Unfortunately, you can expect that all of this euphoria will fade when the Italian elections take place on February 23 and 24.
The reason is summed up in two words: Silvio Berlusconi.