Danish House Prices Decline as Euro Crisis Undermines Confidence

English: Various Euro bills. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

By Peter Levring – Danish apartment prices have plunged 25 percent since their 2007 peak, while house prices are down 20 percent over the past five years. The real estate slump left a regional banking crisis in its wake, wiping out at least 12 lenders since 2008.

The nation, which pegs the krone to the euro, has emerged as a haven from Europe’s debt crisis thanks to a public debt load that’s less than half the euro-zone average. That’s pushed policy rates to record lows and helped drag down borrowing costs on mortgages. Banks have partly offset the declines by charging higher fees in response to stricter capital requirements. more> http://tinyurl.com/cfm2akz

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Merkel’s Dispassionate Approach to the Euro Crisis

By Konstantin von Hammerstein and René Pfister – For three years now, the euro crisis has been smoldering. It has brought down governments in Ireland and Spain, in Italy and Slovenia, and has led to countless summit meetings in Brussels, at which first a temporary and then a permanent bailout fund was established.

European leaders will meet in the Belgian capital once again this Thursday and Friday, at what is expected to be the year’s most important summit. The agenda consists of nothing less than the political realignment of the euro zone and the question of whether members can agree to a European banking union to save the Continent’s ailing banks.

In the midst of it all, as always, is German Chancellor Angela Merkel. more> http://tinyurl.com/avjufos

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The euro has become Germany’s new Deutschemark

By Jeremy Warner – The eurozone crisis has set Britain and Germany, apparently irreconcilably, on different courses. While Germany and its fellow travellers want more Europe, Britain wants less. If the eurozone is to survive in its present form, it needs much greater integration. And if that’s the way Europe is headed, then Britain would rather not be a part of it at all. more> http://tinyurl.com/d9djgsb

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Germany’s savers feel resentment and guilt over pressure to end euro crisis

By Kate Connolly, Ian Traynor and Siobhan Dowling – Leipzig is one of the success stories of reunification. New roads, rail links and a redeveloped airport have sucked in investment and international companies. But none of it would have happened without a colossal 20-year bailout that has already cost the west €1.3tn. “Without the transfers from the west, it would not have been possible.”

The German merger model is not a template that can be applied on a European scale. When the euro was being created 25 years ago, the then chancellor, Helmut Kohl, used to argue that German and European unification were two sides of the same coin. The euro crisis has punctured that notion. more> http://tinyurl.com/984eslh

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German court backs euro rescue fund with conditions

By Annika Breidthardt and Diana Niedernhoefer – Germany‘s Constitutional Court gave a green light on Wednesday (Sep 12) for the country to ratify the euro zone‘s new bailout fund and budget pact, but insisted the German parliament have veto powers over any future increases in the size of the fund.

Germany is the only country in the 17-nation euro zone that has yet to ratify the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), which is meant to erect a 700 billion-euro firewall against the spread of the three-year-old sovereign debt crisis.

“This is a good day for Germany and a good day for Europe,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said in a speech to parliament. more> http://tinyurl.com/9dtmhwv

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