Second, senior bank bonds from other euro-zone countries, especially Greece, Portugal and perhaps Spain, might suffer contagion.
Those who expect higher prices said the persistent worries over European sovereign debt issues, especially regarding Greece, present strong support for prices.
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The EU is in the grips of a major financial crisis with out-of-control PIIGS debt and deficits, especially with Greece at the moment.
It might rouse sleeping nationalist dogs especially with Germany and Greece about to meet in the Euro 2012 football championships.
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Investors urged him to expand his crisis-fighting tool kit to ensure Portugal, Greece and especially Italy and Spain can continue relying on debt markets to pay their bills while they restructure their over levered economies.
Greece, however, struggled to meet 2010 targets set by the EU and the IMF, especially after Eurostat - the EU's statistical office - revised upward Greece's deficit and debt numbers for 2009 and 2010.
For all the bile that some are now hurling, especially at Germany, the odds are that Greece's politicians will buckle.
Beyond that, the outlook is cloudy, especially since euro-zone leaders are talking about rejigging Greece's second bail-out package, agreed last July.
The State Department's first annual human-trafficking report, issued last summer, was especially critical of 23 countries among them Israel, Greece, South Korea, Russia and Pakistan.
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Which brings me to the last reason why a Greek exit looks less terrifying than it did, which is that the prospect of keeping Greece on track is looking a lot worse, especially if you're one of the Northern European politicians who always thought the money was heading down a black hole.
But quite apart from the explicit lending to banks, the ECB and central banks of the stronger economies, especially the Bundesbank, also have a huge "counterparty" risk to Greece, Italy and Spain from the way that the payments system in the eurozone works.
The economic troubles in Greece last year sparked a wave of sovereign debt woes across Europe, especially hitting Ireland, Spain and Portugal.
The economists conclude that this effect can operate in some conditions, especially when high fiscal deficits are already causing a crisis of confidence, as in Greece.
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Greece has been bailed out twice already, and may need a third time, especially if Merkel is intent on keeping the Euro currency.
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Yes, employment remains a challenge, in the U.S. and especially in parts of Europe suffering from double-digit unemployment, such as Spain, Portugal, Italy, and Greece.
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