Pressures mount in Eurozone as Fed considers QEII

Irish bond yields continue to surge this afternoon, read here. A blog from The Economist this afternoon concludes as follows: Policy changes are pushing Europe toward a very long period of stagnation if not an outright return to recession. Workers are underemployed and furious. Core and periphery have seriously diverging views on the direction policy should take. And markets continue to pressure indebted nations to make cuts they may not actually be able to make.

Either the ECB must seriously soften its stance, or Germany and France must suddenly become much more generous to struggling euro zone economies, or the euro zone will face its toughest months yet. If no exit valve for the building pressure can be found, then pressured economies will begin heading for the exits.

Read Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, in the Telegraph, on the mounting economic crisis from here. In a report in The Independent a parcel bomb sent to German Chancellor Angela Merkel was reported to have come from crisis stricken Greece: Several German media outlets cited sources as saying the package was personally addressed to Ms Merkel and the Greek Economy Ministry was given as the return address. Police said the devices were potentially lethal. "The more compact these package, the greater the explosion. They can even kill," a senior police officer said. These events are taking place before the realisation that Germany really plans to force a Lisbon Treaty amendment through the 26 other parliaments of the EU, without any referendum, begins to sink in following last week's meeting of the Council of Ministers. What might we expect when the knowledge that Economic Governance of these former nations is to be handed to non-elected foreign third parties at Germany's behest slowly dawns on the austerity stricken electorates?