Europe's Financial Crisis A Short Guide to How the Euro Fell Into Crisis and the Consequences for the World

Will the Euro survive? Where is the European financial crisis headed? What will it mean for global and US markets? In this short book, internationally respected Financial Timesjournalist John Authers illuminates today's European financial crisis and the massive forces increasingly buffeting world and US economies. Authers explains why a strong recovery remains far away, why the risk of a disastrous "final" crisis remains terrifyingly real, and how investors can best navigate today's brutally challenging markets. The European Financial Crisisreveals why the 2010/2011 market rallies were so fearful, and why their underlying assumptions -- continued Chinese growth, bailouts, progress towards bank solvency, more easy "Fed" money -- have proven so tenuous. Above all, Authers shows how the Eurozone crisis uncovers today's worst unaddressed risk: the markets'loss of confidence in governments. This brief discussion offers insights into underlying flaws in the banking system and the Eurozone's structure that remain unaddressed; how cheap money and bailouts have bought time that is rapidly running out; and the increasingly frightening signs of "perverse synchronization": forex, equity, credit, and commodity markets massively moving in tandem. He also offers specific recommendations for what policymakers can and must do now to restore the long-term health of the global markets.

JOHN AUTHERS (London) is the Financial Times' Senior Investment Columnist, responsible for the weekly Long View and other columns on markets and investment. In a 22-year career at the FT, his previous posts have included global head of the Lex column, investment editor, US markets editor, Mexico City bureau chief and US banking correspondent. He is author of The Fearful Rise of Markets.

Introduction     1
Chapter 1    Genesis of the Euro     11
Chapter 2    Catalyst: Crash on Wall Street     27
Chapter 3    Emerging Markets Decouple     43
Chapter 4    Currency Wars     55
Chapter 5    Banks Bounce     67
Chapter 6    Bank-Bashing     81
Chapter 7    Europe: The Logic of Contagion     95
Chapter 8    Democrats versus Technocrats     113
Chapter 9    Risk-On, Risk-Off Markets     129
Chapter 10  2012 and After     149
    Index     161