Tag: sovereign debt

Just after Standard & Poor’s warned it would downgrade 15 of the 17 eurozone countries if EU leaders didn't strike a deal to save the euro at a summit on Friday, vice president of the European Parliament Gianni Pittella (S&D) called to strip rating agencies of their sovereign rating power, announcing changes to the Commission proposal on rating, which has just landed in the Parliament.

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner will attend a meeting of eurozone finance ministers in Poland on Friday, as fears of a potential Greek debt default hit Europe's banking sector. Meanwhile, Germany and the EU are trying to reassure jittery markets.

European Union finance ministers look set to back a ban on naked or uncovered selling of sovereign debt and shares when they meet next week, diplomats said on Wednesday (11 May). 

Eurozone finance ministers discussed on Monday (17 January) having more money in their rescue fund and cheaper emergency loans as part of a package of measures to end the sovereign debt crisis. But they made no firm decisions.

EU member states must stop claiming that the euro is in crisis and follow stricter budgetary rules, argues Jürgen Stark, former vice-president of the Deutsche Bundesbank and a member of the executive board of the European Central Bank.

It is worth trying to regulate whatever has made the global economy highly unbalanced and vulnerable to further crises, writes Michael Spence, a Nobel laureate in economics, professor emeritus at Stanford University and chair of the Commission on Growth and Development.