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...TIME's Pictures of the Week...
...Cartoons of the Week...
...Merkel seems prepared to call Papandreou's bluff. The Greek leader had counted on the E.U. to collectively recoil in horror at the idea of his country's going to the IMF, but Merkel is effectively daring him to do it. Speaking to the German Parliament in Berlin last week, Merkel said that calling in the IMF "would probably have to be the way out right now if action were to be taken." She went on to say that the euro-zone countries should be able to kick out one of their own to avert a crisis in the future...
...effect of this spat has been to push the euro to a four-week low against the dollar as investors fret over the uncertain prospect of support for Greece. The euro closed on Tuesday at $1.35, down from a high of $1.51 in November. "The leaders are hardening positions but not for a clearly thought-out purpose," says Fredrik Erixon, director of the Brussels-based European Centre for International Political Economy. "It looks more like a chicken farm than anything else...
...leaders' respective supporters have upped the ante in the showdown this week. Bundesbank board member Thilo Sarrazin warned that if Greece cannot pay its bills, "it should do what every debtor has to do and file for insolvency." And the fiery Greek Deputy Prime Minister, Theodoros Pangalos, accused Germany of betting on rising Greek bond yields. "In allowing monetary and credit institutions to take part in this miserable game, people in Germany are making money," Pangalos said. (See more about the E.U.'s bailout of Greece...