All quiet on the Eurozone front

What is going to happen next?  Is it going to all go quiet while the world finds another distraction until the next crisis blows up - in a week or fortnight’s time?

Papandreou's coalition offer snubbed by opposition leader

Antonis Samaras – head of Greece's New Democracy party – calls for immediate elections

the Guardian,

5 November, 2011

Greece’s prime minister has struggled to form a temporary coalition government after the leader of the main opposition party called for immediate elections.

George Papandreou has agreed to step aside if necessary to help his Socialist party hammer out a four-month coalition he says is vital to securing a new debt deal worth an additional €130bn ((£112bn). He said a coalition would also demonstrate the country's commitment to remaining in the eurozone.

But the political deadlock Papandreou had hoped to break looked set to continue after his offer was snubbed hours later by Antonis Samaras, the head of the New Democracy party.

For article GO HERE

Silvio Berlusconi shrugs off IMF's financial checks on Italy

Prime minister insists Italy is in good health, with debts under control, and points to full restaurants as proof of strength

the Guardian, 

4 November, 2011

Silvio Berluscuon insisted Italy has no financial problems – even as its cost of borrowing rose to dangerously high levels and the president, Giorgio Napolitano, warned that the country is undergoing its worst crisis since the second world war.

As fears rose that the euro crisis is spreading to Italy and the embattled prime minister's majority continued to crumble, Berlusconi put on a typically upbeat performance in Cannes, defying reports of his political demise and denying that a planned IMF check-up on his reform programme was a humiliating limitation on his sovereignty.

Berlusconi insisted Italy was in rude financial health, with its debts under control, pointing to full restaurants as proof of its economic strength.

The Italian prime minister said he had turned down an offer from the International Monetary Fund to extend Italy a line of credit. He also insisted he had asked inspectors from the IMF to monitor economic reforms demanded by the EU and which he promised will be voted through parliament by the end of the month.

For article GO HERE