TIMES ONLINE: Angela Merkel led calls for an international financial tax today as a “signal of strength” as stock markets continued to slump from a lack of confidence in the euro.
The German Chancellor, whose apocalyptic warnings about the single currency yesterday started the latest slide in European shares, insisted that new regulations would demonstrate that politicians had a grip on the febrile financial markets.
After touching 5,000.76 points today — a new low for the year - the FTSE 100 rallied to close down 85 points, or 1.65 per cent, at 5,073.13, while Europe experienced bigger falls of 2.5 per cent in Berlin and 2.9 per cent in Paris. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 2.41 per cent while the S&P 500 dropped 1.77 per cent. Read on and comment >>> David Charter, Berlin | Thursday, May 20, 2010
