[1] Since the fall of 2009, the European Union has been struggling with a slow-moving but
unshakable crisis over the enormous debts faced by its weakest economies, such as
Greece and Portugal, or those most battered by the global recession, like Ireland.
A series of negotiations, bailouts and austerity packages have failed to stop the slide of
[5] investor confidence or to restore the growth needed to give struggling countries a way out
of1 their debt traps. By August 2011 European leaders found themselves scrambling once
again to intervene in the markets, this time to protect Italy and Spain, two countries seen
as too big to bail out2.
The crisis has produced the deepest tensions within the union in memory, as Germany in
[10] particular has resisted aid to countries it sees as profligate, and has raised questions about
whether the euro can survive as a multinational currency, since countries like Greece have
been unable to boost their exports by devaluing their own currency.
A reluctant, indirect intervention by the European Central Bank in late 2011 led the crisis
fever to cool considerably, as it lent vast sums to banks on easy terms to head off3 a
[15] liquidity crunch. But crisis has given way to a grinding reality for Europe of economic
stagnation and even a second recession for countries including Spain, Italy, Belgium, the
Czech Republic and the Netherlands as well as Greece. Nearby, Britain also fell into4 a
double dip recession after two years of Conservative-led austerity.
In April 2012 there was a growing sense of resistance to the German prescription of budget
[20] cuts as the prescription for all. From trading floors to polling stations to the streets of cities
across Europe, the message appeared increasingly to be that countries cannot cut their
way to5 fiscal health, but need growth, too.
In May, voters in France and Greece punished politicians associated with austerity; France
ousted conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy in favor of Francois Hollande, a socialist
[25] and Greek voters cut the share of votes for its two traditionally dominant parties in half,
while far right and far left parties gained.
[1] Since the fall of 2009, the European Union has been struggling with a slow-moving but
unshakable crisis over the enormous debts faced by its weakest economies, such as
Greece and Portugal, or those most battered by the global recession, like Ireland.
A series of negotiations, bailouts and austerity packages have failed to stop the slide of
[5] investor confidence or to restore the growth needed to give struggling countries a way out
of1 their debt traps. By August 2011 European leaders found themselves scrambling once
again to intervene in the markets, this time to protect Italy and Spain, two countries seen
as too big to bail out2.
The crisis has produced the deepest tensions within the union in memory, as Germany in
[10] particular has resisted aid to countries it sees as profligate, and has raised questions about
whether the euro can survive as a multinational currency, since countries like Greece have
been unable to boost their exports by devaluing their own currency.
A reluctant, indirect intervention by the European Central Bank in late 2011 led the crisis
fever to cool considerably, as it lent vast sums to banks on easy terms to head off3 a
[15] liquidity crunch. But crisis has given way to a grinding reality for Europe of economic
stagnation and even a second recession for countries including Spain, Italy, Belgium, the
Czech Republic and the Netherlands as well as Greece. Nearby, Britain also fell into4 a
double dip recession after two years of Conservative-led austerity.
In April 2012 there was a growing sense of resistance to the German prescription of budget
[20] cuts as the prescription for all. From trading floors to polling stations to the streets of cities
across Europe, the message appeared increasingly to be that countries cannot cut their
way to5 fiscal health, but need growth, too.
In May, voters in France and Greece punished politicians associated with austerity; France
ousted conservative President Nicolas Sarkozy in favor of Francois Hollande, a socialist
[25] and Greek voters cut the share of votes for its two traditionally dominant parties in half,
while far right and far left parties gained.
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