The Euro Zone Crisis Is Back – On Multiple Fronts!

• The Euro Zone Crisis Is Back—On Multiple Fronts! 
  by Holly Ellyatt, Assistant News Editor, www.CNBC.com 
  Europe’s finance ministers meeting in Dublin on Friday are facing a renewed crisis on multiple fronts,with a backlash against austerity acting as a gloomy backdrop for negotiations over bailout extensions for Portugal and Ireland, while tackling Cyprus’s botched bailout and growing worries about Slovenia.
  – 
  Investors, increasingly aware of the euro zone’s disarray, will be closely watching the results of that meeting. On Thursday, Cyprus confirmed that the cost of its troika-initiated bailout had surged to 23 billion euros ($30 billion) from 17.5 billion euros, further jeopardizing its moribund economy.  It has also confirmed that it may have to sell most of its gold reserves to raise about 400 million euros to finance its part of the bailout.  
  – 
  The bailout orchestrated by the European Central Bank (ECB), IMF and European Commission have been likened to a “strait jacket” on Cyprus, and investors are worried the conditions imposed on Nicosia could be a precedent for other struggling economies that could be in need of financial aid, such as Slovenia which is widely seen as a possible next bailout recipient.
  – 
  Slovenia’s leaders are trying to avoid requesting financial aid and the onerous terms those loans are likely to come with. Earlier this week, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said the central European economy risks a “deep recession” and a “severe banking crisis.”
  –
  read more!

end