Sluggish EU politicians worsen crisis

Speaking at an election campaign meeting on Monday, Barack Obama accused the European heads of state and government of reacting sluggishly to the debt crisis. No wonder this impression also dominates the markets, Europe correspondent Jean Quatremer writes in his blog Coulisses de Bruxelles: "Two years of hesitation, turnarounds and  paying lip service to half-hearted measures approved under the pressure of events have caused the markets to doubt the Eurozone's resolve to save its own currency. It's no wonder that the sovereign debt crisis, at first limited to Greece alone, has now infected all of the peripheral countries in the Eurozone, Italy included, and threatens to degenerate into a banking crisis that  would plunge the Eurozone and much of the world into a new recession. ... The delays are causing confusion and nervousness in the markets, which do not always grasp the subtleties of European mechanisms. ... Basically, the markets do not perceive the passage of time in the same way politicians do."

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