Announced Billions Of Euros

(Reuters) - Disillusioned by the unfulfilled promise of the cities and feeling stifled by tough austerity measures aimed at coping with an economic downturn, some Portuguese are opting out and returning to the land. Jose Diogo, who spent two years in Lisbon working as a technical advisor at a meat company, was one who fled at the beginning of Portugal's debt crisis in 2009, and has no regrets. "I lived in Lisbon and decided to go back home to the interior to grab the opportunity of exploring the land my father owned," Diogo said on the porch at his stone farm house, looking out over apple orchards and grazing fields for his 30 cows. Far from discouraging people like Diogo, the government is trying to get others to follow in his footsteps. In February it launched an initiative to map ...

Dukascopy Fundamental Analysis EUR Thousands of people in Spain are going participate in the general strike against the new reform. The reform stipulates reduction of the maximum severance payment to 33 days' remuneration from 45 days currently provided. The measure is aimed at combating with unemployment and saving billions of Euros for the country. However, labour unions claim the legislation will ease firing for the companies. USD US unemployment claims increased sharply last week to 359K despite positive sentiment on the market and analyst consensus forecast of 351K. The latest reading indicates a sharp increase of this indicator, as the previous week's reading stood at 348K. GBP The average house price in the UK declined by 1% this month while taken annualized rate home prices ...

(Reuters) - European shares hit a one-week low and the euro fell as riskier assets bore the brunt of fears that the global growth outlook is darkening and that Greece may not be able to complete a major debt restructuring deal. These concerns look set to spread to U.S. stocks, with major indices poised to open lower despite more positive data on the giant American economy on Monday and hopes that this week's nonfarm payrolls report for February will show a rise in new jobs. "The market has become sanguine about the U.S. recovery prospects and if the jobs data on Friday is bad then there will be a rush for the door," said Nick Beecroft, senior markets consultant at Saxo Bank. China's lowering of its economic growth target and data pointing to Europe possibly slipping back into recession ...

(Reuters) - European shares fell sharply and the euro hit a near three-week low on Tuesday on worries that Greece will not be able to complete a major debt restructuring deal and on growing concern that global economic growth is weakening. Private sector Greek creditors have until late Thursday to agree a debt swap needed to release its 130 billion euro second bailout and avert an imminent messy default, but fears have risen that acceptances may not meet the minimum required. A disorderly Greek default would probably leave Italy and Spain needing outside help to stop contagion spreading and cause more than 1 trillion euros ($1.3 trillion) of damage to the euro zone, the group representing private bondholders warned in a document seen by Reuters. "This week will determine the success or ...

(Reuters) - The debt-ridden euro zone acted as a drag on the world economy at the start of the year and is seemingly destined to slide back into recession just as monetary policymakers are running out of ammunition. Data from the euro zone's private sector published on Monday showed a sharp downturn among Italian and Spanish businesses dragged the currency bloc back into decline last month. Growth slowed in Germany, the region's biggest and strongest economy, and stalled in France. The European data followed slightly more upbeat purchasing managers' indexes (PMIs) from Asia, with China services growth picking up and India's slowing, but maintaining a robust pace. While central bankers in Asia have interest rates to cut, policy rates are at or near zero in most of the developed world and ...

(Reuters) - The euro was underpinned on Tuesday by hopes a way would be found to push through a second bailout deal for Greece, though fresh signs of exposure to Europe's economic troubles among leading banks rekindled investor unease, sending shares lower. U.S. stock index futures pointed to the unresolved Greek deal weighing on Wall Street at the open, ahead of Senate testimony from Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke that may grab the spotlight at 1500 GMT (10 a.m. EST) after last week's strong jobs data. Greece's prime minister and leaders of its main political parties are set to resume talks later Tuesday on new austerity measures demanded by the EU in return for another bailout. The deal needs to be approved by February 15 if the money is to be available in time to meet a March ...

We like a good joke. Here’s a cute one: What’s invisible and smells like carrots? Answer: Bunny farts. Here’s another one… Two fish swim into a wall. The one turns to the other and says, “Dam!” But we don’t like bad jokes very much. Here’s one: What did the fisherman say to the card magician? Answer: Pick a cod, any cod! Here’s another one… Many large European banks are solvent. The recent stress tests of European banks were “a joke,” according to Jim Chanos, the famous short seller who laughed all the way to the bank when betting against fatally flawed companies like Enron, Conseco and Boston Chicken. “The tests are a joke,” Chanos declared during an interview yesterday on Bloomberg TV. “The accounting is a joke and the markets are beginning to say, ‘No More!’” Chanos said he ...

“Global regulators…have no real sense of what type of contagion effect would occur if Greece were to default,” observes Michael Lewitt in the June 16, 2011, edition of The Credit Strategist. “No doubt they believe it is significant enough that they are willing to do virtually anything humanly possible to prevent this scenario from unfolding.” Lewitt is demonstrably correct. Since 2007, global bureaucrats have broken any law that has hindered their attempts to ward off our inevitable reckoning. Attempts to prevent a euro eruption have become preposterous. The European Central Bank (ECB) is clearly in extremis. A week does not go by without the ECB reducing its standards of collateral. The cost is not only its credibility as a central bank, but in the composition of its deteriorating ...

(Reuters) - Ireland on Thursday said it had passed a crunch review of its economic progress by its creditors without any penalty and ratings agency Fitch upgraded its outlook in some rare good news for the debt-ridden country. The government also moved against two of the most high-profile entrepreneurs of the "Celtic Tiger" boom and announced plans to impose losses on subordinated bondholders in its struggling lenders, measures likely to appease angry voters. Ireland has been struggling to convince markets its debt burden is sustainable since the International Monetary Fund and European Union arranged an 85 billion euros bailout last year. Analysts polled by Reuters forecast that there was a 40 percent chance that Ireland would be forced to restructure its sovereign debt in the next few ...