europe

Europe: Is it time to break up this marriage?

From up close, it looks like the 'poorer' nations could do just fine without a single currency.

By Erin Burnett, contributor

FORTUNE -- This summer trips to Europe opened my eyes to something: There's a lack of passion in Europe for keeping the euro. Yes, the pain of a breakup would be severe. But many of the poorer southerners of Europe don't seem to feel that they need "Europe" anymore.

That, at MORE

Reinventing Spain's economy

The nation has a big productivity problem compared with its trading partners.

By Pankaj Ghemawat and Stijn Vanormelingen

FORTUNE -- As Europe's leaders attend one emergency meeting after another, the political high drama shouldn't make us lose sight of the fact that if the debt crisis is to be solved, Southern European companies need to change how they compete. Nowhere is that more evident than in Spain, whose elites fret over MORE

Wall Street's hidden Europe risk

Big banks are betting that Europe's largest nations will avert crisis.

Fortune - Wall Street firms have been trying to stay one step ahead of the European crisis. That might not be far enough.

Earlier this year, a number of U.S. banks disclosed that they had significantly cut their exposure to Europe's most troubled economies. That was welcome news at a time when the Euro crisis appeared to be heating up again. MORE

Bank bailout is no cure for Spain's pain

Spain's bank bailout merely transfers more debt to its weak government balance sheet and it sets the stage for a full sovereign bailout.

By Cyrus Sanati

FORTUNE -- Investors initially cheered the news that Spain reached a deal for a 100 billion euro bank bailout, but that enthusiasm may not last once the details are digested. The deal, concocted in Madrid and Brussels over the weekend, amounts to a kind of MORE

Goldman says it can profit from Europe's bust

Bank president Gary Cohn says the firm is looking into whether some of its trades could eventually be paid off in drachma if the Euro fades.

Fortune - Leave it to Goldman Sachs (GS) to turn an economic calamity into a money making opportunity.

For the past few months, the U.S.'s largest banks have been scrambling to prove to investors that Europe's debt crisis won't damage them. On Thursday morning, Goldman president MORE

More spending won't rescue Europe's six big spenders

France, Italy, Spain, Ireland, Greece and Portugal have already proven that more government spending actually slows growth. Why do they want to spend even more?

FORTUNE -- The leaders of distressed European nations, from Italy's Mario Monti to France's Francois Hollande, are blaming "austerity" for their economic woes, and championing policies that promote "growth."

It's important to define the two terms. Austerity stands for shrinking budget deficits, by lowering spending, raising taxes, MORE

It's time for Europe to choose inflation over austerity

If the EU's leading nations aren't willing to forgive the debt of their troubled bretheren, then maybe they need to start printing more euros.

By John Cassidy, contributor

FORTUNE – From the U.S., the European debt crisis can seem like a black comedy populated by regional stereotypes: iron-fisted Anglo-Saxons, feckless Mediterraneans, and haughty Brussels bureaucrats. Closer to the action, it isn't funny at all. In the words of Mervyn King, governor MORE

Wake up, Europe! It's time for a real fix.

European leaders have solid ideas on the table to help solve the eurozone crisis, but nothing will work without full fiscal and monetary integration.

By Cyrus Sanati

FORTUNE -- The eurozone crisis is on the verge of spinning out of control. For over two years, European leaders and the European Central Bank have been both unwilling and unable to address the real structural issues that plague the common currency. But with MORE

Morgan Stanley is betting against Europe's weakest

Portugal, Italy and Spain top the investment bank's hit list.

FORTUNE -- Morgan Stanley is no "long"-er  being PIIGy.

As of the end of the first quarter, Morgan (MS) was positioned to profit if the government debt of Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain fell in value, essentially betting that financial condition in Europe's weakest nations is set to get worse. Morgan's biggest "bet" is against Portugal. But it would also benefit MORE

Chris Flowers: Europe will help us buy banks

Will European governments give away the banks?

Chris Flowers doesn't make too many speeches, and certainly not in countries where he had invested in a pair of local financial institutions that later required government bailouts. But there he was at the podium in Berlin this morning, as a keynote speaker for the SuperReturn International conference.

The private equity investor's primary message was that European governments will eventually assist in the sales of MORE