Double Dip Recession?

[Furunculus]

It already is, even if Wolfgang Schäuble refuses to call it that. It is also a special trade zone where one country depends on others for most of its experts. The same applies to the West as a whole, including the US.
AII

it will be when national parliaments vote in favour of it in september...........

09.05 Olli Rehn, the EU Monetary Affairs Commissioner, has said the eurozone's yet-to-be approved €440bn European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) bail-out fund needs to be credible and respected by markets to be effective:

Quote To be effective the EFSF needs to be credible and respected by the markets. And therefore we need to be continuously assessing it, once up and running, in its objective form with these goals in mind.

Rehn wasn't specific about numbers, though Willem Buiter, Citigroup's chief economist calculates that the EFSF needs €2 trillion to deal with the latest crisis.

Rehn will speak to reporters today in Brussels just before lunchtime on the eurozone. More from Brussels correspondent Bruno Waterfield then