S&P 500
7,401.00
+0.91%
Dow Jones
49,665.70
+0.19%
Nasdaq 100
29,241.00
+2.43%
Russell 2000
2,860.88
+0.82%
FTSE 100
10,263.70
+0.48%
Nikkei 225
63,767.70
+2.68%

Investing

As German Confidence Drops, Bailouts Less Likely

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
By Douglas A. McIntyre Published
Follow 24/7 Wall St. on Google
This post may contain links from our sponsors and affiliates, and Flywheel Publishing may receive compensation for actions taken through them.

Invalid Image
Germany is the “banker to Europe” because of the size of its economy, the ongoing improvement of its GDP and the prosperity of its citizens and businesses. Confidence among voters about their well-being is critical to the support they give Angela Merkel as she is forced to lead a bailout of Greece and probably other weak nations in Europe. She seems reluctant to take that role, but the scope and wealth of her country’s “bank” make it inevitable.

German business confidence has turned downward recently, and that by itself could take that nation out of its critical role as primary savior of the eurozone. According to Bloomberg, “The Ifo institute in Munich said its business climate index, based on a survey of 7,000 executives, dropped for a third straight month to 107.5 from 108.7 in August. That’s the lowest since June 2010.”

IMF and ECB officials are already concerned that eroding support for Merkel’s policies could make her retreat from a tentative commitment of German funds to a larger and permanent bailout facility for Europe’s troubled countries. There is pressure from around the world for the eurozone to put its financial house in order. So far, there has been no specific answer to those calls. Germany could pull itself out of its role at the center of new contributions to bailouts. The drop in business confidence makes that more likely.

Douglas A. McIntyre

Photo of Douglas A. McIntyre
About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.

Continue Reading

Douglas A. McIntyre |

Germany’s Despair

The Center for European Economic Research said its May economic expectations index for Germany fell to 45.8 from 53.0 in April. Coupled…

Douglas A. McIntyre |

How The Greek Debt Problem Can Be Fixed

Update: The German opposition Green Party said that the Greek bailout could cost 120 billion euros. The yield on Greek…

Douglas A. McIntyre |

Merkel’s Germany Expects Neighbors To Knuckle Under

The balance of power in Europe is simple. Germany is the largest nation by GDP. It is also the healthiest…

Douglas A. McIntyre |

German Confidence Falls

If the Germany economy is the only real healthy one in Europe, and Europe must rely on Germany as the…

Douglas A. McIntyre |

Germans, Confident About the Future, Distance Themselves From Neighbors

Consumer confidence has climbed in Germany as the year ends. It is an extraordinary development because the balance of Europe is…

Douglas A. McIntyre |

Merkel Protests Too Much: Are German Banks Short The Euro?

“A failure of the euro means a failure of Europe,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said today, according to Dow Jones.…

Douglas A. McIntyre |

European Bailout Loses Support As Analysts See Flaws

Global markets have begun to reject the value of the nearly $1 trillion facility set up by Eurozone nations, the IMF,…

Douglas A. McIntyre |

Bad Books Cook Greece (Update 2)

The head of the International Monetary Fund said Thursday that the debt crisis in Greece is serious and there would…

Douglas A. McIntyre |

Greek Bailout Set, Papandreou Faces Challenges To Remain Premier

The Eurozone nations and IMF have bailed out Greece to the tune of more than $146 billion dollars, and Greece faces…

Top Gaining Stocks

Akamai
AKAM • Vol: 21,556,944
Micron Technology
MU • Vol: 65,135,624
Intel
INTC • Vol: 227,504,426
Monster Beverage
MNST • Vol: 15,284,847
Dell Technologies
DELL • Vol: 12,167,525

Top Losing Stocks

Mettler Toledo International
MTD • Vol: 539,266
Motorola Solutions
MSI • Vol: 3,101,643
Expedia
EXPE • Vol: 4,189,786
Coterra Energy
CTRA • Vol: 73,319,495
Fidelity National Information Services
FIS • Vol: 11,468,820