Debt Crisis

MADRID — The newest Apple store in Spain, like its counterparts in other parts of the world, is designed to draw you in. Stone floors, glass doors, and rows of blond wood tables stocked with scores of gleaming iPhones, iPads and MacBooks as far as the eye can see. On a recent weekday afternoon, the cavernous showroom was missing only one thing: customers. Only a handful were scattered throughout the store — and most were just browsing. "I would have liked to buy lots of things, but I have no money," sighed...

DUBIOUS RECORD: The eurozone is now in its longest recession, a six-quarter slump that has topped the downturn that hit the region in the financial crisis of 2008-9. FRANCE ADDED: The European Union statistics office said Wednesday that nine of the 17 EU countries that use the euro are in recession, with France a notable addition to the list. Overall, the eurozone's economy contracted by 0.2 percent in the January-March period from the previous three months. AUSTERITY PAIN: The...

Graham Donnelly's care fully reconstructed life has become like Ireland itself, a story of prosperity found then lost, of a crash and burn and a successful struggle to get back on his feet. But he is also a symbol of the tough road ahead for Europe . When Ireland flourished in the 2000s, so did Donnelly, landing a well-paying job in pharmaceutical research that covered a life of expensive dinners and overseas travel. That ended in 2009 as the debt-fueled economy here crumbled and Donnelly was laid off....

The eurozone is stuck in recession — its longest since the euro was founded in 1999. The latest figures from the European Union's statistics office show that the economy of the 17 EU countries that use the euro shrank for a sixth straight quarter, slumping by 0.2 percent in the January-March period from the previous three months. Initially it was just the countries at the forefront of the eurozone's debt crisis, such as Greece and Portugal, that were contracting. But the malaise is now spreading to...

LONDON — European leaders agreed early Friday to create a permanent fund to rescue financially troubled nations even as the debt crisis in Portugal sharply worsened, with the Iberian nation appearing almost sure to follow Greece and Ireland in seeking an international bailout. The escalating problems in Portugal — which tipped into a red zone on Wednesday after its prime minister resigned when parliament rejected deficit-busting austerity measures — underscored the still unsettling financial problems gripping the 17-nation union that...

LONDON — After more than three years of global market turmoil, political upheaval and nail-biting summits, European leaders are declaring that the worst of the continent's debt crisis is behind them. In New Year's speeches and congratulatory comments, leaders across the region are crediting fresh rounds of painful austerity, a hard-fought new role for the European Central Bank and steps toward deeper integration with achieving a breakthrough. Borrowing costs for troubled nations, they note, have...

Imagine that the twin towers still dominated the Manhattan skyline. Imagine that the Pentagon's western facade had remained intact. Imagine that there was no reason to build a memorial in Shanksville, Pa. And imagine that the numbers 9 and 11 meant nothing more than an emergency telephone call. The world changed on Sept. 11, 2001, that much is clear. But how much, and how radically? Historians and novelists love constructing "what if" scenarios: What if...

BERLIN — The debt crisis in Europe showed signs of easing Wednesday, as heads of state said that Greece will keep using the euro currency, helping soothe the fears of a financial collapse on the continent and driving markets up. French President Nicolas Sarkozy and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said they are "confident that Greece's future is in the euro zone," after a teleconference between the two leaders and Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou,...

LONDON — Slovakia on Thursday approved a beefed-up bailout fund to combat Europe's debt crisis , much to the relief of European leaders who needed the tiny nation's sign-off before putting their grand rescue plan into effect. The enhanced, $590 billion fund aimed at shoring up ailing debtor nations and the banks that own their debt was agreed to in July, but its creation was contingent on approval from all parliaments of the 17 nations that share the euro. The Slovak...

Don't call me a deficit hawk. I'm a deficit panda. If you care about preserving government programs, especially for the most vulnerable, you should be, too. The taxonomy of the budget debate is unintentionally but dangerously misleading. The term deficit hawk conjures images of a sharp-taloned raptor swooping down on government spending, preying on the defenseless elderly or seizing food from hungry children. Hence my pitch for a cuddlier image. I would argue that it is possible to be a deficit panda: to...

BERLIN — European leaders are increasingly at odds over how to create a full-fledged banking union, the bloc's key project to stabilize its financial system and turn the tide in its stubborn debt crisis. A majority of the 17 countries in the European Union's common euro currency union want to swiftly create a central banking regulator as well as an authority that can rescue or unwind ailing banks. Berlin, however, says the EU should not rush. It argues that setting up such a rescue...

ROME — Thousands of supporters of former Premier Silvio Berlusconi rallied in a northern Italian city Saturday to protest the media mogul's recent conviction by a Milan appeals court for tax fraud, cheering their hero as police in riot gear separated them from jeering opponents. The backers turned out for the "Everyone for Silvio" rally by his Freedom People party in a square outside the cathedral in Brescia, a small industrial city that is a bastion of the...

BERLIN — President Barack Obama will visit Berlin next month for talks with Chancellor Angela Merkel on his first visit to the German capital since taking office, her spokesman said Friday. Obama will be in Berlin June 18-19, said Georg Streiter, a spokesman for Merkel. Details of the visit have yet to be worked out, but Merkel is looking forward to talks on "a wide spectrum of bilateral and global questions," he told reporters. Obama will be traveling in...

ROME — Italian President Giorgio Napolitano completed a first day of consultations with political leaders on Wednesday to try to find a way of forming a government after the deadlocked election last month left no party with a majority in Parliament. Napolitano was due to meet the largest parties on Thursday. Italy's political stalemate and the prospect of months of uncertainty has caused alarm across Europe just as the standoff over bank deposits in Cyprus reawakened fears that the euro-zone debt...

Hotels Marriott plans to cut IT jobs in Bethesda Marriott International, the Bethesda-based hospitality giant, said Friday that it is cutting IT jobs at its headquarters. Formal notices have not been given, and the company would not say how many of the 1,200 IT employees in Bethesda would be affected. "Over the course of the year, we have held five different town hall meetings to let our IT associates know we would be moving to a leaner organization," Jeff Flaherty, a...

Paul Ryan says he doesn't spend a lot of time worrying about Republicans being blamed for the pain inflicted by the budget sequester. The bruises, in his view, go with the territory. "We have to get right in our minds that the bully pulpit will always probably get better press than we will," the House Budget Committee chairman and the 2012 Republican vice-presidential nominee told me Wednesday evening in an interview. "That cannot deter us. . . . The sequester will happen, and that will be occurring all along until the president is...

PARIS — Despite months of urgent summits, repeated rescue plans and merciless budget cuts, European governments remain on the edge of a financial abyss, struggling to meet mountainous debts accumulated over four decades of living beyond their means. The most immediate danger lies in Greece, where the government is effectively bankrupt, with debts amounting to an estimated 160 percent of the country's gross domestic product. Negotiations with creditor banks, which have been asked to take a 50 percent loss, are proceeding fitfully in...

Christine Lagarde's possible move to Washington and the International Monetary Fund isn't the only major change happening this year among the top officials responding to the European debt crisis. Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the European Central Bank, is scheduled to step down when his term ends Oct. 31. Mario Draghi, head of Italy's central bank, has emerged as the likely candidate to succeed him. Draghi will become a leading voice on the bailouts of Greece, Ireland and Portugal and the...

Graham Donnelly's care fully reconstructed life has become like Ireland itself, a story of prosperity found then lost, of a crash and burn and a successful struggle to get back on his feet. But he is also a symbol of the tough road ahead for Europe . When Ireland flourished in the 2000s, so did Donnelly, landing a well-paying job in pharmaceutical research that covered a life of expensive dinners and overseas travel. That ended in 2009 as the debt-fueled economy here crumbled and Donnelly was laid off....

ROME — Silvio Berlusconi, the three-time Italian prime minister, billionaire playboy and perpetual criminal defendant who was all but counted out of Italian political life when a debt crisis forced his resignation in 2011, shocked the country Monday by shooting back into a position of influence. Even by the chaotic standards of Italian politics, the resurgence of Berlusconi's People of Liberty party, which seems to be in contention to win the most seats in the Italian Senate, along with the...