Topic: Deficits

The euro zone debt crisis will continue to dominate European stocks in 2012, with even well-run companies in danger of being sucked into the morass, according to S&P Capital IQ.

The Institute of Directors has endorsed a radical proposal that recommends replacing part of the UK tax system with a single income tax rate of 30 percent and reducing the government’s share of the national economy to one-third, the Financial Times reports.

If Greece goes: An exit is likely to shatter faith in the eurozone’s integrity for ever. The Financial Times reports.

David Cameron, Britain’s prime minister, will on Thursday warn that the single European currency could unravel in a way that “carries huge risks for everyone” unless the eurozone’s 17 members move rapidly towards full fiscal and political union.

Students are protesting on Barcelona's elegant boulevards, public-sector wages are being cut for the second time in three years and resentment is growing against the central government and beneficiaries of bank bailouts.

Plans to give shareholders more power over boardroom pay will be given centre stage in the Queen’s Speech, as highly paid executives face another week of lambasting from shareholders, the Financial Times reports.

Steady declines in smoking, a big win for public health, are creating problems for municipal bond investors.

Voters in the United Kingdom punished the coalition government’s two political parties at local elections across the country on Thursday in what will be seen by many as a rejection of the government’s austerity.

Repairing the economy and regulating banks is “the biggest challenge the Bank [of England] has faced for decades,” Sir Mervyn King said on Wednesday in a speech in which he conceded for the first time he should have “shouted from the rooftops” about risks before the financial crisis.

While the French presidential elections are drawing the attention of most in Europe, local elections in the UK, though unlikely to change the shape of Britain’s coalition government, could put pressure on its economic policy.

Hedge fund managers make for unlikely supporters of François Hollande, the French socialist presidential candidate, the Financial Times reports.

Britain's economy slid into its second recession since the financial crisis after official data unexpectedly showed a fall in output in the first three months of 2012, piling pressure on Prime Minister David Cameron's embattled coalition government.

Reducing government deficits Mitt Romney's way would mean less money for health care for the poor and disabled and big cuts to nuts-and-bolts functions such as food inspection, border security and education.

Cutting government programs to reduce the U.S. budget deficit is favored by more than twice as many Americans as those who favor raising taxes, a Reuters/Ipsos poll found.

Baby Boomers, with their inheritances, homes, and old-fashioned pensions, may appear to be on track for a solid retirement—but some experts say the forecast for the generation born from 1946 through 1964 isn’t necessarily so rosy.