THE NEW YORK TIMES: LONDON — European officials, increasingly concerned that the Continent’s debt crisis will spread, are warning that any new rescue plans may need to cover Portugal as well as Ireland to contain the problem they tried to resolve six months ago.
Any such plan would have to be preceded by a formal request for assistance from each country before it would be put in place. And for months now, Ireland has insisted that it has enough funds to keep it going until spring. Portugal says it, too, needs no help and emphasizes that it is in a stronger position than Ireland.
While some important details are different, the current situation feels eerily similar to what happened months ago in Greece, where the cost of borrowing rose precipitously.
European authorities stepped in with a rescue package, expecting an economic recovery and the creation of new European rescue funds to fend off future panics by bond investors whose money is needed by countries to refinance their debt.
But with economic conditions weakening, markets are once again in turmoil. Rescuing Ireland may no longer be enough.
Stronger countries and weaker countries using the common currency of the euro are being pulled in different directions.
Some economists wonder if unity will hold or if some new system that allows countries to move on one of two parallel financial tracks is needed. Read on and comment >>> Landon Thomas Jnr and James Kanter | Monday, November 15, 2010
WELT ONLINE: Deutschland wird zum Zahlmeister der Eurozone: Ein Ausstieg aus dem Euro kommt für die Kanzlerin nicht infrage. Jetzt wetten die Finanzmärkte auf eine Transferunion. Das wird teuer. >>> Autor: D. Eckert und H. Zschäpitz | Dienstag, 16. November 2010
