Country Bailout, Euro Zone | featured news

Spain's 17 regional governments are a big part of the country's financial problems. Like the regional savings banks, they are victims of the country's property boom and bust. During the boom years, regional government tax revenues were swelled by stamp duties on property sales, and by income taxes paid by immigrants that came to work on the country's construction sites... Then the bust came...

Spain’s borrowing costs rose to record levels for a third consecutive trading day on Monday on concerns that a deepening recession and the financing problems of its regions would force the government to seek a full-fledged bailout.

BERLIN —Greece’s new leaders have had only a month to confront their country’s dismal tangle of economic problems, but some in Europe think the troubled Mediterranean country is up against a hopeless task.

Italy said on Tuesday it may want to tap euro zone aid to ease its borrowing costs as finance ministers struggled to convince markets they are getting a grip on the bloc's debt crisis, which a top European Central Banker said could escalate.

Italy and Spain, battling searing market pressure in the euro zone's widening debt crisis, blocked agreement on measures to promote growth at a European Union summit on Thursday to demand urgent action to bring down their borrowing costs.

Cyprus, the fifth euro zone country to seek emergency funding from Europe, may need a bailout of up to 10 billion euros — over half the size of its economy — officials said.

The euro-zone's bailout funds can't handle another big bailout, the world's biggest private financial institutions said.

European leaders faced increasing pressure on Thursday to respond to the euro crisis, as Spanish bond yields hit a level that has triggered full bailouts of other nations.

Spain could decide this month to ask for a bailout for its troubled banking sector, a step that would make it the fourth country in the 17-member eurozone to seek help since the EU debt crisis broke out....