portugal

As the UEFA European Championship, commonly known as Euro 2012, continues through the first matches of the group stage, an interesting pattern arises. Of all sixteen nations in the tournament, only three nations, the Czech Republic, Italy, and Ireland, have not defaulted since the year 1300....

As the European Debt Crisis has now taken down its fourth nation, now batting .800 or four out of five, let us discuss the bailout that may not be as stellar as originally thought. As I wrote on Friday, a European TARP could not work, and so the question became of what shape would the Spanish bank...

According to the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), the officials from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund conducted their fourth evaluation of the country on Monday. According to Finance Minister Vitor Gaspar, in his speech after the proceedings, the 78 billion euros bailout program is...

There was more bad news out of Europe on Thursday when the European Union's statistics agency Eurostat announced that unemployment in the euro zone had climbed to a euro era record high and inflation was on the rise too. Eurostat said that unemployment across the euro zone had reached 10.7 percent...

The European Commission (EC) released a report today saying that last quarter's economic contraction will extend into the first two quarters of 2012, sending the euro zone group of economies into a recession. Today's report from the European Commission forecast that euro zone economies will shrink...

The euro zone unexpectedly shrank in February, adding to fears that Europe might be about to fall back in to recession. The latest survey results from Markit Economics' purchasing managers' index (PMI) showed that the index fell back to 49.7 in February, down from 50.4 in January. The results are...

For once there was good news coming out of Europe when France and Germany reported better than expected fourth quarter economic results. Although Germany's economy shrank by 0.2 percent, it was less than the 0.3 percent contraction that was widely expected. Germany also had its third quarter...

Stock prices across Europe fell during early Tuesday trading after Moody's Investors Service downgraded the credit ratings of several European Union countries. Moody's downgraded the credit ratings of Italy, Malta, Portugal, Slovakia and Spain and gave each of them a negative outlook as well. The...

Italy saw its borrowing costs drop significantly on Monday, following the Greek Parliament's approval of another set of austerity measures. Passage of the austerity measures were crucial in order for Greece to receive its next round of bailout funds and to avoid a possible default. European Union...

On Monday, the yield on the 5-year Portuguese note spiked. The yield hit a record for the post-euro era of 22.69%. The trade may have been fueled by the turn of events in Greece. The general perception of the market may be to accept Greece's default as a given. Last year, markets appeared...

Friday the thirteenth lived up to its ominous reputation as far as the Euro is concerned. The common currency of a union long haunted by financial inviability hit lows not seen in 17 months today driven by S&P sovereign downgrade rumors and halted talks on Greek debt. To a lesser extent,...

2011 has been a tough year for the Euro Zone countries. The sovereign debt crisis has shaken investors' confidence in the Euro currency and bond yields of a number of Sothern European countries have been at record highs. These red flags have been big enough to catch credit agencies attention too...

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti is asking his country's parliament to pass another round of austerity measures aimed at preventing an Italian default. The latest set of austerity measures being presented to the Italian Parliament is said to be around 30 billion euros ($40 billion). The measures...

European Central Bank President Mario Draghi told the European Parliament on Thursday that the eurozone must become more integrated. Draghi said that the most important step in leading the eurozone out of its current sovereign debt crisis would be to create a new "shared fiscal compact" in which...