Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has stated that he will not accept any outside conditions on bailout funds that could potentially save his nation’s economy.
“I am absolutely convinced that everyone will be reasonable but I insist that we haven’t taken a decision,” Rajoy said during a national television address. “I will look at the conditions. I would not like, and I could not accept, being told which were the concrete policies where we had to cut.” Continue reading
The European Union’s Aaa credit rating became endangered on Tuesday when credit ratings agency Moody’s changed the EU’s outlook to “negative.” Moody’s attributed the move to the negative outlook on ratings connected to the EU’s most key contributors to income.
Earlier this year, Moody’s placed Germany, France, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom into a negative economic outlook meaning those individual countries could soon face a downgrade in their credit status. All four countries currently have a Aaa rating. Continue reading
Catalonia, a region of Spain that makes up one-fifth of the nation’s economy, is requesting a new bailout of 5 billion euros to cover debts.
The news comes as Spain’s economy shrank even further according to official data from the second quarter of the year. The nation’s economy fell about .4% after the economy fell .3% in the first quarter of the year. It’s the third straight quarter where the economy has shrunk and the overall annual contraction in the second quarter on an annual basis is 1.3%. Continue reading
By Wayne Allyn Root
Published August 23, 2012
Everywhere from FoxNews.com to CNBC.com, I suddenly see commentators warning of pending doom, economic collapse, and a new Great Depression. Welcome to my club. Perhaps America’s politicians and economists should have paid attention to an entrepreneur and small businessman that has been warning of economic collapse and a new Great Depression publicly for over two years. Continue reading
President Mohammed Mursi took the opportunity to request a loan for the nation during a visit from the head of the International Monetary Fund.
IMF chief Christine Lagarde promised that the IMF would respond to the request quickly and Egyptian Prime Minister Hisham Qandil told the press he hoped to have the deal finished by the end of the year. Continue reading
The economy of the Eurozone shrank .2% in the second quarter of the year compared to the previous quarter. The economies of the full 27 European Union member nations also fell .2% during the second quarter.
The Eurozone and the EU are technically not in a recession due to the definition of recession requiring two straight quarters of negative growth and the first quarter of the year had zero growth. However, economists are pessimistic about the rest of the year and believe a recession is likely. Continue reading
Europe’s manufacturing saw the 11th consecutive month of contraction in July. Despite an increase of .1 in the index from 46.4 to 46.5, the overall amount is still below the 50 level that indicates no growth.
The services sector rose to 47.9 in July, an .8 increase from June but all sectors reported lower levels of output in the month. Continue reading
On the same day that Italy’s prime minister proclaimed he could see a “light at the end of the tunnel” for the Eurozone debt crisis reports surfaced that the unemployment rate is at a record high.
Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti met with French President Francois Hollande in Paris for discussions on the euro. Hollande agreed their had been “significant progress” in recent weeks and that the euro should be “defended, preserved and consolidated.” Continue reading
The recession in the UK officially deepened after reports of the country’s gross national product falling .7% between April and June. The fall was more than double the .3% drop in the first three months of 2012.
The fall marks the fourth negative quarter in five quarters for the UK with the latest the worst of the four declines. It’s the largest fall in GDP growth since a 1.6% fall in the first quarter of 2009. Continue reading
A drop in consumer spending resulted in the US economy growth slowing to an annual rate of 1.5% according to the Commerce Department. That’s down almost a full percentage point from the first quarter of the year.
The Commerce Department also put some of the blame on an increase in imports during the same time period.
“As campaigning [for President] gets serious, the economy is losing momentum not gaining,” Mark Gregory of the BBC reported. “That’s bad news for President Obama’s chances of hanging onto his job in November.” Continue reading