Germany - a key contributor to any rescue package - is arguing with France and the European Central Bank over the extent to which private investors should buy new Greek bonds and share the risk burden.

BBC: Greece crisis: Is there a solution?

Two days before the budget package passed, he had launched a last-minute personal bid to save Philipp Holzmann, a private German construction company, from bankruptcy and the loss of some 60, 000 jobs.

ECONOMIST: Rebirth of a salesman

But job creation was one of the key aims put forward in last year's state-of-the-union address, and yet, in spite of the 2001 tax cuts and the stimulus package put together a year ago, the economy has lost more than 180, 000 private-sector jobs in the past 12 months.

ECONOMIST: Working on the sceptics | The

The trouble with both the banking package and the traditional pump-priming is that they fail to address the real problem: that the private sector is awash with debt.

ECONOMIST: Japanese bonds

Those costs reflect a trend among private American universities--charge a stratospheric tuition fee, then offer a generous financial aid package.

FORBES: Magazine Article

Until a deal on private-sector losses is finalised and implemented, investors cannot rely on a second bail-out package that will keep Greece in the euro.

ECONOMIST: Greece and the euro