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Stacey Vanek-Smith: German Chancellor Angela Merkel meets with deep pockets today to discuss the bailout of Greece. Those deep pockets include the International Monetary Fund and the European Central Bank. World markets have been tanking after Standard and Poor’s downgraded Greece’s debt to “junk status.” Stephen Beard has more.
Stephen Beard: The IMF is reported to be planning to offer Greece a bigger loan — an extra $13 billion. But some of Greece’s European partners are showing less enthusiasm for helping out. Germany seems the most reluctant. The German people are strongly opposed to a bailout, believing that Greece is essentially bust.
The crisis has spilled well beyond Greece’s borders. Investors have also been dumping Portuguese government bonds. Spanish and Italian bonds could be next in the line of fire, says Neil Mackinnon of VTB Capital Group:
Neil Mackinnon: There’s a systemic risk here that if bond investors do suffer losses — which they already are; anyone whose bought Greek bonds this year is already suffering a heavy loss — there is a feeling that other countries might go down the same route.
And, he says, this is why the Greek crisis has gone global. Many government, having bailed out their banks , have to raise billions of dollars this year. But investors seem increasingly reluctant to lend. That could blow the economic recovery off course.
In London, this is Stephen Beard for Marketplace.
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