Word: french
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...weekend announcements by the G-7 and agreements by the 15 nations that use the euro to intervene in the crisis with huge financial assistance, Tuesday's repeat came as those measures were backed up by actual figures in both Europe and the U.S. In Paris on Monday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy pledged $488 billion to underwrite loans between banks and inject capital into troubled banks and financial groups. Similarly, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said up to $651 billion would be used for similar uses - though primarily limited to underwriting lending between banks. Austria, Spain and the Netherlands weighed...
That will take time, but for now, most observers air cautious optimism that the government responses have turned the corner on the crisis. According to economist Jacques Mistral, head of economic research for the French Institute on Foreign Relations, the general fear that caused the bearish epidemic pushed markets so low that traders were already looking for a bottom from which to rebound...
...their infinite wisdom, European governments have now decided that letting the state effectively get control of ailing banks is the way out the current financial mess. But the French government really messed up the last time it had control of a chunk of the nation's banking system. That was when President Francois Mitterrand nationalized banks in the 1980s. In fact, for a good part of the 1990s, the French budget was knocked sideways because of the losses incurred at just one state-run bank, Credit Lyonnais. The German state's track record in banking isn't much better. Regional...
Markets loved it, and have rebounded. And the Europeans are feeling pretty good about it all, especially French President Nicolas Sarkozy, who got the various governments to agree on a coordinated plan after two weeks of nasty bickering. Built into the European bailout is a subtle but unmistakable anti-American touch. For the Europeans are taking a very different tack from the U.S. in mounting their bailout, and quite deliberately so: they think U.S. Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson badly messed up his bailout...
Much of the griping has been taking place anonymously, so as not to cause political ructions. But not all of it. France's Finance Minister Christine Lagarde told French radio shortly before last weekends G7 summit: "As soon as you let one domino fall, the rest risk crashing down." She didn't exonerate Lehman - "there were certainly bad decisions taken by that bank, bad management," she said. But under the present panicky conditions, no bank should be allowed to go under. That's the motto the Europeans have adopted as part of their plan...