Euro zone pledges new steps to help Greece

Reuters - Euro zone finance ministers promised cheaper loans, longer maturities and a more flexible rescue fund to help Greece and other EU debtors in a bid to stop financial contagion engulfing Italy and Spain.

A marathon nannycrat session ended with no deal as the IMF played hardball insisting Greece reduce debt to 120% of GDP by 2020. Not to worry, Jean-Claude "Lie When It's Serious" Juncker says progress was made.

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Euro zone finance ministers on Monday will discuss an increase in the effective lending capacity of the euro zone rescue fund, to try to draw a line under the sovereign debt...

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - Euro zone finance ministers will discuss Monday an increase in the effective lending capacity of the euro zone rescue fund, to draw a line under the sovereign debt crisis before...

    Today’s AM fix was USD 1,611.50, EUR 1,246.62 and GBP 1,059.99 per ounce. Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,608.75, EUR 1,246.42 and GBP 1,059.43 per ounce. Gold climbed $8.70 or 0.43% and closed yesterday at $1,614.40/oz. Silver reached $29.31 and finished +1.29%.

BRUSSELS — Within minutes of eurozone finance ministers reaching a deal to cut Greece’s debt late on Monday, commentators on Twitter were dismissing it as another exercise in “kicking the can down the road”. To an extent that is true. Under the agreement, the euro zone and the International Monetary Fund will give Greece two more years to reach its budget goals and will find another 44-billion euros (US$57-billion) to keep the country afloat in the meantime.

BRUSSELS — Eurozone finance ministers and the International Monetary Fund clinched agreement on a new debt target for Greece on Monday in a significant step towards releasing another tranche of loans to the near-bankrupt economy, officials said. After nearly 10 hours of wrangling at their third meeting on the issue in as many weeks, Greece’s international lenders agreed to reduce Greek debt by 40 billion euros to 124% of gross domestic product by 2020 through a package of steps.

Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy were more than a little ticked off when Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi showed up for the Cannes summit "empty handed". In response. Merkozy proposed a new Troika for Italy and sent inspectors to pour over Italy's books.