The European currency euro logo stands in front of the European Central Bank (ECB) in Frankfurt, Germany. Business confidence has dropped in Germany to its lowest level in more than two years amid pessimism over the eurozone’s deteriorating debt crisis, data show. According to the German research institute, Ifo, the country’s Business Climate Index fell to 102.3 points in August from 103.2 points... 

A financial analyst says the eurozone bankers and policy makers are responsible for the bloc’s deepening economic crisis, Press TV reports. “The eurozone is really not in the bad shape that the policy makers tell us it is in. They are basically extorting us into accepting things like transforming the European stability mechanism, the new financing fund into a bank which allows them to get ten... 

A new report prepared by Russian Deputy Finance Minister Tatyana Nesterenko about the Eurogroup meeting of the Informal Economic and Financial Affairs Council (ECOFIN) in Wroclaw Poland on the growing European debt crisis states that EU Finance Ministers were “left stunned” Friday after they were told by US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner [photo top right] that President Obama was “not in... 

Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi Rome has approved a new emergency 45.5-billion-euro austerity plan in response to demands by the European Central Bank (ECB) to balance Italy’s budget by 2013. The Italian government approved the emergency package in line with the ECB request on Friday, despite strong disagreement and resistance from local government officials who maintain that new austerity... 

European Central Bank's bond buying operation could re3ach €850bn according to analysts at the Royal Bank of Scotland. Letter to Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi demanded detailed list of reforms to timetable set by the bank. The European Central Bank’s decision to start buying up Italian and Spanish bonds has controversially extended its operations into detailed demands for economic restructuring,... 

Finance minister urges MPs to support deal and pledges that investors will share burden. German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble told his country’s Parliament on Friday that MPs had a duty to approve a new aid package for Greece and that private creditors must carry some of the burden. Agence France-Presse reported that in an impassioned speech to deputies who later approved a non-binding motion... 

The EU banking system is in big trouble. Many of the Union’s largest banks are sitting on hundreds of billions of dodgy sovereign bonds and non performing real estate loans. But writing down their losses will deplete their capital and force them to restructure their debt. So the banks are concealing their losses through accounting sleight-of-hand and by borrowing money from the European...