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Europe's Markets Slump

European stocks plunged Wednesday, reversing earlier gains in a second day of volatility, as ongoing concerns about euro-zone debt contagion and a weak U.S. growth outlook outweighed the prospect of continued low interest rates in the world's largest economy.

Market chatter of credit rating downgrades in Europe, France in particular, late in the session made investors more jittery still and sent equities deep into the red.

Investors said they were concerned that while the U.S. has resolved its budgetary crisis, albeit through an uncomfortable compromise, the debt crisis in Europe is more demonstrative of fundamental issues. Read more at professional.wsj.com

 

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Italy Renews Push to Soothe Wary Investors

In Reversal, Berlusconi Vows to Balance Budget; EU Leaders Place Flurry of Calls

Europe's leaders mounted a frantic joint effort Friday to show markets they are tackling the latest fears over the Continent's debt crisis—with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi reversing course and making a late-day pledge to balance his country's budget earlier than planned.

Mr. Berlusconi's comments came as Europe's central bank indicated it was open to purchasing government bonds of Italy and Spain as a way to ease mounting market pressure on two of the euro-zone's largest economies, according to people familiar with the matter.

The anxiety is such that many euro-zone leaders have reluctantly canceled or delayed their summer holidays to deal with the crisis.

Mr. Berlusconi and Spanish premier José Luis Rodríguez Zapatero discussed recent developments in debt markets, noting that recent "fluctuations and speculative movements in sovereign-debt markets were incomprehensible," according to Mr. Zapatero's office.

President Barack Obama, meanwhile, spoke separately Friday with French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner is increasingly irritated at the Europeans for reacting too slowly to stem the escalating crises.

Market "speculation is now aimed at us," Mr. Berlusconi said during his news conference, adding that Italy and fellow euro-zone nations must take action to block it. Read more at professional.wsj.com

 

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What is wrong with the month of August ?

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Beware the guns of August

By the time this column is published I will be on holiday in France, and the US might finally have stepped back from the abyss of debt default.

Viewed from Europe, the American financial uproar is baffling. It is not just the entirely avoidable nature of the crisis. It is also its timing. The entire European political calendar is constructed around the idea that nothing ever happens – or should be allowed to happen – in August.

The drama that surrounded the emergency eurozone summit in Brussels in late July was partly caused by the threat of financial chaos, if Greece was not lent more money. But an unstated reason for the sense of urgency of the leaders around the conference table was a desperate desire to get a deal wrapped up – before the holiday season began in earnest.

When something really drastic happens in the month of August, European leaders are often caught on the hop. In August 2008, when Russian tanks rolled into Georgia, David Miliband, Britain’s foreign secretary at the time, had to deal with the crisis on a mobile phone from a holiday villa in Spain.

in August 1939, Europe was once again hurtling towards war. On August 21, the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany was announced to a shocked world – making the invasion of Poland and a general war inevitable. On the night of August 31, Adolf Hitler ordered the German army to attack Poland.

The tendency for international crises to break out in August has persisted into the modern age. The Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia was crushed when the Soviet Union and its Warsaw Pact allies invaded in August 1968.

In August 1989, the first breach in the Iron Curtain was made when Hungary opened its borders to Austria, starting off the train of events that led to the fall of the Berlin Wall a few months later.

In August 1990, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq invaded Kuwait – and within weeks President Bush was rallying a coalition to wage the first Gulf wa

in August 1991, Mr Bush was informed that a coup was under way in the Soviet Union – and that Mikhail Gorbachev had been arrested.

What is it about August?

the democratic world tends to be half-asleep, or at the beach, in August makes it the ideal month for dictators and autocrats to make their move. It may be no coincidence that Nazi tanks in 1939, Soviet tanks in 1968, Iraqi tanks in 1991 and Russian tanks in 2008, all got rolling during August.

in the western world, the big financial crises have tended to wait until the autumn. The Wall Street crash of 1929, and its miniature version in 1987, both took place in October. True, the first sign of current crisis came via an injection of liquidy from the European Central Bank in August 2007. But the collapse of Lehman Brothers – lest you have forgotten – did not follow until September 2008. Read more at www.ft.com

 

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