Europe's Web of Debt - Graphic.
China ready to help solve EU debt crisis. Tuesday 14 February 2012 19.43 Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao says his country is ready to increase its participation in efforts to resolve Europe's debt crisis, after holding talks with EU leaders in Beijing.
Mr Wen said China wanted to see Europe - its biggest trading partner - "maintain stability and prosperity", a day after ratings agency Moody's downgraded Italy, Spain and Portugal. "China is ready to increase its participation in resolving the EU debt problems," Mr Wen said. He was speaking after meeting European Council President President Herman Van Rompuy and European Commission President José Manuel Barroso. China is considering using Europe's bailout funds to help address the continent's fiscal woes, Mr Wen added, without elaborating further on how China might be prepared to contribute. European leaders last year approached China, which holds the world's largest foreign exchange reserves, to invest in a bailout fund to rescue debt-laden states.
GAMECHANGER: The ECB Opens The Door To Debt Forgiveness Across Europe. Satyajit Das: The impossible puzzle: how to reduce debt without growth - Business Comment - Business. In practice, the level of sovereign debt acceptable to investors is more complex, depending on a combination of factors.
One factor is the currency of that debt. The US, Japan and the UK have all benefited from the fact that its sovereign debt is denominated in its own currency. Where it borrows in its own currency, a sovereign's capacity to borrow is only constrained by the willingness of investors to purchase its securities and the cost of that borrowing. Where the borrowing currency is a major reserve currency, used in global trade or favoured as an investment by central banks, the scope for borrowing is higher. The ability to print money to service debt theoretically ensures repayment if not the purchasing power of the debt.
Substantial domestic savings, like in Japan, enhances the ability of the government to finance its expenditure. In contrast, only 28 per cent of Spanish debt is held by foreign investors. Eurozone unemployment hits new record. 31 January 2012Last updated at 11:44 Unemployment is at the highest rate since the euro was launched in 1999 Unemployment in the eurozone hit a record high at the end of last year, the Eurostat agency has said.
The jobless rate in the 17 countries that use the single currency was 10.4% in December, unchanged from November's figure which was revised up from 10.3%. Some 16.5 million people were out of work in the eurozone in December, up 751,000 on the year before. The highest unemployment rate remains in Spain (22.9%), while the lowest is in Austria (4.1%). Unemployment has been rising throughout 2011, as the debt crisis in the region has continued. Investment delays Guillaume Menuet, economist at Citigroup, said he expected the number of people out of work to increase throughout 2012. "In many cases you find firms continuing to delay investment projects.
In the 27 EU countries, the unemployment rate was 9.9% in December, with 23.8 million people out of work. Deteriorating situation. European Debt Crisis: Who Loaned PIIGS the Money? Germany Backs ECB in Rejecting Lagarde’s Call to Take Losses on Greek Debt. "A senior member of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government rejected suggestions that the European Central Bank take losses on its Greek debt holdings, backing the ECB in a dispute with the International Monetary Fund.
" Forget all the other spin coming out about Europe today. Papers need to fill space. This is what matters. Bondholders. especially senior debt holders, refusing to take haircuts that should be 100% are what's going to push Europe over the edge. The German still delude themselves that growth is possible and the greed of senior debt holders worldwide is insatiable and unfulfillable. -- MCR Click to read Bloomberg article Visit the World News Desk for related stories, more dots to connect, and our world-famous analysis and commentary.