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Apocalypse Fairly Soon in Europe - Paul Krugman, New York Times

For the past two-and-a-half years, European leaders have responded to crisis with half-measures that buy time, yet they have made no use of that time. Now time has run out....

Are Germans Destined to Save the Euro? - Jeremy Warner, Daily Telegraph

To make it work, the euro will have to become a very different kind of monetary union. Whatever the historic mission, it's not clear that Germans are yet ready - political...

Spain Caught Between the Rock and the Euro Crisis - Daily Telegraph

The Spanish snub to the Queen smacks of a government that is anxious to distract public attention from its domestic woes....

Spain's Slump Means Europe Must Rethink Tough-Love - Bloomberg

Spain is the crucial front in Europe's battle to contain its economic crisis, and the fight is going badly....

Don't Blame Spain's Regions for Woes - Miguel-Anxo Murado, The Guardian

Those blaming Spain's self-governing regions for its problems are mistaken - and pose a threat to the nation's integrity....

Europe's Growth Challenge - Lawrence Summers, Washington Post

Unfortunately, Europe has misdiagnosed its problems in important respects and set the wrong strategic course. Outside of Greece, which represents only 2 percent of the euro zone,...

'Basta' to Austerity - José Ignacio Torreblanca, Financial Times

Basta! After two years of reforms, Spaniards are all too familiar with the deadly ritual Europe’s strategy to fight the crisis has become. Every new reform package adopted is pr...

Will Spain Take Down the Global Economy? - Robert Samuelson, Wash Post

Just when you thought the world economy might be improving, along comes Spain. It's Europe's next economic domino, struggling to cope with big budget deficits, massive unemployme...

Spain's Hollow Victory Over Inequality - Mark Whitehouse, Bloomberg

Spain achieved great success in reducing income inequality before the global recession hit. Paradoxically, that may now leave it ill equipped to fix its economic problems....

Belated Reforms a Bitter Pill for Southern Europe - Der Spiegel

Assunta Linza, a petite 33-year-old, and her father Giovanni, 60, graying and with the build of a bulldozer, are sitting on the family sofa in a northern suburb of Rome. Assunta i...

IMF Still Won't Admit Truth About the Euro - Jeremy Warner, Telegraph

It is often said that travel broadens the mind. Not so for finance ministers gathering in Washington DC this week for the spring meeting of the International Monetary Fund and G20...

Europe's Economic Suicide - Paul Krugman, New York Times

The prescription coming from Berlin and Frankfurt is, you guessed it, even more fiscal austerity....

Spain's Woes Reignite Euro Crisis - Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Telegraph

The eurozone crisis has returned with a vengeance after Spain's mounting woes pushed 10-year bonds yields back to the danger line of 6pc and the Madrid bourse crashed to its ...

Teetering Spain Could Derail U.S. Economy - Patrick Smith, Fiscal Times

reece’s austerity plan, complete with debt swap, is now in place. Spain has announced its most rigorous budget since the post–Franco restoration of democracy in the 1970s. Ita...

Europe's Financial Maginot Line - Desmond Lachman, The American

In 1940, the Maginot Line proved woefully ineffective in protecting France from a German invasion, despite the great amount spent on its construction and the high hopes placed on...

The Euro Needs a Smooth Escape Plan - Gideon Rachman, Financial Times

If a Greek exit went well, other countries struggling inside the euro zone would be severely tempted to follow suit....

No Way to Ease the Pain in Spain - The Independent

The situation in Spain is far from pretty. Ahead of yesterday's budget, a general strike shut down swathes of industry, paralysed public transport and brought several large cities ...

Europe's Firewall Follies - Wall Street Journal

With Italy and Spain too big to save, squabbling over the size of the ESM looks a lot like deck-chair management....

The Pain in Spain Will Test the Euro - Martin Wolf, Financial Times

Spain's fiscal difficulties are a consequence of the crisis, not a cause. The country experienced huge rises in private debt after 1990, particularly among non-financial corpora...

Spain's Sovereign Thunderclap - Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, Daily Telegraph

The Spanish rebellion has begun, sooner and more dramatically than I expected. As many readers will already have seen, Premier Mariano Rajoy has refused point blank to comply with...

How Europe Might Get Its Groove Back - A.A. Gill, Bloomberg

They discovered another Mona Lisa at the Prado in Madrid, just hanging about in the stock room. “What do you think that is?” asked some Spanish curator. “Let’s clean it an...

The Eurozone's Strategy of Pain - Jean Pisani-Ferry, Project Syndicate

For the third year in a row, the eurozone is the weakest link in the world economy. In 2010, attention was focused on responses to the crisis on the eurozone periphery – Greece,...

A Plan for Reviving Spain - Luis de Guindos, Wall Street Journal

Fiscal consolidation must be matched with bold structural reforms to foster growth....

2012: Year of Counter-Revolution? - Leon Hadar, Singapore Business Times

The outgoing 2011 is the Year of the Protester, according to Time Magazine. The insurgency targeting the ruling political elites, first in Tunisia, and then in Egypt, Libya, Syria,...

99 Percent and Road to Despotism - Fabio Rafael Fiallo, The Commentator

One of the key features of the Marxist movement, since the days of Lenin and Trotsky in the early 20th century, relates to its infatuation with what has been called the “avant-g...

Zapatero's Dismal Legacy - Christopher Caldwell, Weekly Standard

Just as incoming American presidents are given the atomic “briefcase” by their predecessors, along with the codes for launching a nuclear attack, perhaps Spanish prime minister...

Euro Crisis Is Entirely Avoidable - James Surowiecki, New Yorker

The financial crisis in Europe, seemingly never-ending, has now entered a potentially disastrous phase. With interest rates on Italian and Spanish debt soaring, France looking sh...

Spain's New Prime Minister Must Act Fast - The Economist

The new prime minister has to act fast - and urgently needs outside support....

Conservatives Finally Reign in Spain - Washington Times

Spanish voters threw out their Socialist government on Sunday in favor of the conservative alternative. It was the fifth government in Europe to fall victim to the financial crisi...

Will a New Prime Minister Save Spain? - Helene Zuber, Der Spiegel

Spain's conservative Popular Party has won an historic election victory. But the incoming prime minister, Mariano Rajoy, will not have much time to savor his success. He will have ...

Europe Is Now a Continent Divided - Doug Saunders, Globe and Mail

We have now entered a very dangerous place, here in Europe, where the economic and monetary crisis is triggering a widespread crisis of politics and citizenship. Until this week,...

Europe Must Rebuild from Scratch - Simon Jenkins, The Guardian

Only a redrafted constitution will revive the EU: there could be no worse end to this saga than imposition of German 'discipline'....

Spain Paying Price of Overspending - Henry Chu & Guy Hedgecoe, LA Times

Spain's regional authorities have been racking up large deficits through heavy social spending and construction. As a result, Spain will probably miss its deficit-reduction targe...

What Egypt, Iraq Can Learn from Germany - Richard Cohen, Wash Post

The role of culture is often slighted. It makes us uncomfortable. It suggests racism and bigotry and cuts against the admirable liberal notion that we are all the same and can, w...

Wealth Trumps Democracy in Europe - Doug Saunders, Globe and Mail

The need for monetary stability has come into stark conflict with the electoral demands of citizens battered by austerity as world leaders gather in Cannes, France, for a G20 sum...

Europe Is Beyond Rescue - David Warren, Ottawa Citizen

There will be a fourth European summit-to- end -all-summits, almost certainly, before the end of the year. Like the previous ones, it will try to save the short-term situation,...

Twilight Falls on ETA's Dirty War - Financial Times

Too many times in its bloody history, Eta’s “permanent” ceasefires have been empty gestures, often breached almost as soon as they were declared. However, the “definiti...

Lessons from the ETA's Abandonment of Terror - Paul Pillar

The recent announcement by the Basque separatist group Euskadi Ta Askatasuna (ETA) that it is ending terrorist operations altogether is more significant than anyone not closely fol...

Basque Peace Move an Essential Step - Gerry Adams, CNN

The decisive and positive terms of ETA's response to Monday's "Declaration" in Donostia-San Sebastian by the International Conference group is to be welcomed, as is the response ...

Peace in the Basque Country? - Gwynne Dyer, Japan Times

ETA has declared 10 cease-fires in the past 30 years, and broken nine of them with terrorist attacks. Why should the one it declared last January be any different?...

Southern Europe's Lost Generation - F. Ortiz And F. Tisera, Reuters

Sylvia knew things would be tough, but never like this. With a masters' degree in publicity, the 24-year-old has been working for more than two years, full-time, in an internsh...

World Links Up With Occupy Wall Street Movement - Associated Press

Tens of thousands gathered in cities across the U.S. and world Saturday in protest marches modeled on New York's Occupy Wall Street movement and sit-ins that began months ago in Sp...

Europe's Central Bank Should Follow the Fed - Centre for European Reform

The biggest challenge facing the eurozone is how to generate economic growth. Whatever its leaders agree in terms of fiscal targets and surveillance will achieve little in the abse...

Wall Street Protesters Follow Egypt's Path - Tony Karon, The National

First came the Arab Spring, then protests in Spain, Portugal, France, Israel – now even the US, where those who believed in Barack Obama are suffering buyers' remorse....

Will America Pay for Europe's Bailout? - David Frum, CNN

Americans had better hope that these negotiations succeed, because it's very doubtful that the United States can avoid being dragged into an emergency euro rescue....

Spain

Europe's New Iron Lady Says 'Nein!'

English Is Still Lingua Franca

Seeds of EU's Crisis Sown 60 Years Ago

Europe's Latin Bloc Is in Revolt

Watching Europe Choose Catastrophe

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