Jean-Claude Trichet, the euro's chief guardian, this month will leave the European Central Bank (ECB) in a very different place from when he took the helm in 2003, with a dramatically expanded role to fight the government debt crisis.
A senior European Union official on Wednesday called for closer political and financial unification on the Continent as fractures emerged among leaders on how to solve Greece's debt crisis.
Global stocks rebounded Wednesday from recent hefty losses as investor sentiment was buoyed by a German court decision backing the country's participation in European bailouts as well as by forecast-busting industrial production figures.
Fixed mortgage rates dipped to the lowest level of the year this week. The third straight weekly decline comes at the start of the peak buying season.
There is no fool-proof way to prevent a repetition of the May 6, 2010, "flash crash," but measures being implemented by federal regulators should help insolate the markets from volatile price swings, the chief U.S. securities regulator said Wednesday.
The sense of panic over the fate of the euro and the 17-country currency union's weakest members has eased on financial markets, for the moment. But pressure on European leaders to get a grip on the Continent's debt crisis has never been higher.
Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke has sought to defuse criticism of the Fed's $600 billion bond-purchase plan by arguing that it's needed to boost the economy and reduce unemployment. But he warned that the Fed's program can't succeed on its own.
Fresh fears of a looming international currency war sent the dollar to an eight-month low against the euro Thursday as top world financial officials cautioned that competing devaluations of countries' currencies could threaten the global economic recovery.
Bankers and analysts said new global rules could mean less money available to lend to businesses and consumers, but they praised a decision to give them plenty of time — until 2019 — before the so-called Basel III requirements come into full force.
