Why Cyprus couldn’t avoid the ‘men in black’
Greece is usually labelled the eurozone’s most reform-resistant economy, but perhaps that’s because Cyprus slips under most people’s radars, writes Tony Barber. Read more
Cameron should not ignore Sikorski’s warning over Europe
Add Poland to the list of European Union countries turned off by the incoherent, self-isolating policies of Britain’s Conservative-led government towards Europe.
First there was Germany. Chancellor Angela Merkel restricts her visits to the UK these days to the barest minimum. She has been lukewarm about David Cameron, the UK prime minister, ever since he pulled the Conservative party out of the pan-European centre-right European People’s Party (EPP), of which her Christian Democrats are a leading light.
Next came France. President François Hollande hasn’t forgotten how Cameron refused to meet him when he visited London on an election campaign trip earlier this year. Hollande is not inclined to do Cameron any favours on crucial issues such as the protection of British interests in a more deeply integrated Europe. Read more
Here are some articles that we can recommend today: Read more
In the Picture: Spain’s ‘bailout-lite’
Questions? Mariano Rajoy gives a press conference on June 10. Dani Pozo/AFP/GettyImages
The initial rally that greeted news of the eurozone’s €100bn emergency loan for Spanish banks petered out so quickly that you might have missed it altogether if, say, you’d had a lie-in on Monday morning. Clearly this was not how it was meant to be. The eurozone ministers who agreed the deal with Spain on a two hour conference call on Saturday must have hoped it would buy them at least a few full days of investor confidence. Instead, the yield on Spain’s 10-year bonds rose to a fresh euro-era high today. Here are some of the best news stories, analyses and comments on Spain’s so-called ‘bailout-lite’, from the FT and elsewhere: Read more
Buy on the summit, sell on the communiqué
Yields on Spanish 10-year bonds over the past month – Bloomberg
The market reaction to the Spanish bailout continues to validate the infallible eurocrisis trading rule of “buy on the summit, sell on the communiqué”. Why so negative, especially for Spanish sovereign debt?
As has been extensively pointed out, the Spanish rescue is a roundabout way to do a bank recapitalisation. Instead of taking direct equity stakes in the banks, the EFSF/ESM has had to lend via FROB, Spain’s bank rescue fund, thus increasing Spain’s sovereign debt load and raising all sorts of tortuously tricky questions about seniority.
So why do it this way? It’s the old story of policy architecture not reflecting the realities of the world economy. Read more
The Fund in Spain?
Could the IMF help bail out Spain? Tricky one. As goes the EU, so goes the IMF, only more so. Read more
Welcome back to our continuing coverage of the eurozone crisis.
After more than 13 hours of talks, a second bail-out for Greece was agreed early on Tuesday morning. We’ll be bringing you reaction to the deal throughout the day. All times are GMT. By John Aglionby, Leyla Boulton and Tom Burgis on the news desk in London.
We’re going to wrap up now since, after getting no sleep last night, diplomats and officials across the eurozone appear to be heading home while Athens remains abuzz with how it will meet its side of the second Greek bail-out. To recap today’s highlights:
Photo: Getty
Welcome back to our continuing coverage of the eurozone crisis.
By Esther Bintliff and John Aglionby in London and Anjli Raval in New York, with contributions from correspondents around the world. All times GMT.
It was decision day on the Greek bail-out. After so many twists to this saga here is a round-up of what came out of the meeting of eurozone finance ministers after more than 13 hours of talks, courtesy of Peter Spiegel and Alex Barker of the FT’s Brussels bureau.
Eurozone crisis: live blog
Welcome back to our live coverage of the eurozone crisis. By Tom Burgis and Kimiko de Freytas-Tamura on the newsdesk in London, with contributions from FT correspondents around the world. All times are GMT.
A summit in Brussels ended in deep division, with the UK refusing to back a new treaty for all 27 EU members and leaving the eurozone countries plus at least six others to forge ahead with a pact of their own to enshrine strict new rules on deficits and debt. It was meant to be the summit that would decisively chart a course out of the eurozone’s debt crisis.
19.03 That’s the end of our live coverage today. We’ll leave you with a quick summary of the day’s developments. See FT.com for more news and analysis through the evening.
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