They came, they saw, they had – as one Syriza MP put it to me last night – “their balls handed to them”. For all the smiling and calm displayed by Alexis Tsipras, the Greeks know they came off the worst.
Negotiations over a new bailout for Greece are approaching a critical stage. And if the country runs out of cash, it might just feel like the end of the world for many Greeks.
Whether the next Greek government is a revamped coalition or one led by the radical left opposition party, it will face the same devastating debt baggage.
Germany suffers its sharpest drop in industrial production since 2009 – boosting fears that the EU’s economic powerhouse could head for recession and trigger a crisis across Europe.
After every financial crash there’s a danger of stagnation, deflation and depression. Europe had to look that danger squarely in the face, and act.
If Spain accepts the humiliation of some outside oversight, ECB President Mario Draghi may have come up with an offer that allows the Eurozone to stagger through the all-important German elections next year.
Gary Gibbon
There’s real and constant anxiety at the Treasury about the Eurozone crisis, but a glimmer of hope that the immediate Spanish borrowing problem can be finessed.
When David Cameron travels to Berlin to meet Chancellor Merkel, top of the agenda will be coaxing the European Central Bank in Frankfurt to act as last resort lender to the Eurozone’s troubled nations reports Economics Editor Faisal Islam.
German politicians, reared on the cult of low debt and low inflation, fear that the European Central Bank is losing its Bundesbank DNA, blogs Faisal Islam.
Gary Gibbon
It’s not very democratic, but “pooled sovereignty” is the order of the day as eurozone leaders wrestle to contain the Italian debt crisis. Political editor Gary Gibbon reports.
Gary Gibbon
When your PM comes away from a summit intended to sort out problems talking about “contingency planning” for some kind of Eurozone disaster you get the impression things didn’t go too well. Political editor Gary Gibbon reports from the G20 in Cannes
Gary Gibbon
What of that big new boost to the firepower of the IMF that Britain was pushing for? It looks like The G20 managed to agree that finance ministers would have more meetings to think about it. Political editor Gary Gibbon reports from Cannes.
The Greek referendum has sent Greek politics into chaos. But it has also disarmed the euro bailout agreed last week, sending government borrowing costs soaring and share prices crasing across the rest of the eurozone.
A crisis-ridden Greece faces another drama next week as it prepares to vote on the detested property tax. blogs Channel 4 News Economics Editor Faisal Editor.