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German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said Greece does not need financial aid after talks with Prime Minister George Papandreou in Berlin. She said Greece has not asked for financial support and that the stability of the eurozone is ‘assured’. Athens saw its most serious unrest since the financial ...Read More

French President Nicolas Sarkozy has met key union leaders to discuss controversial plans to reform the country’s pensions system. The government wants to cut the pension burden on the state, with one option being raising the retirement age. However, unions have already voiced their opposition to any such ...Read More

The UK should be seen in the same category of countries as Greece and Spain, who are facing severe debt problems, a leading economist has said. Ex-IMF chief economist Simon Johnson, also described the G7 group of leading economies as “fundamentally useless”. His comments to the BBC came ...Read More

By GREGORY ZUCKERMAN A year ago, investors were dealing with heavy losses from the most brutal stock-market selloffs in years. The last thing they expected was a ferocious bull market. And yet, shares soon began to soar — climbing more than 50%. Last year’s unexpected stock rebound — ...Read More

Contrary to the expectations (and hopes) of most estate planning attorneys and tax advisors, the federal estate and generation-skipping transfer (GST) taxes were allowed to expire at the end of 2009 due to Congressional inaction. Democratic leaders’ attempts to extend 2009 estate and GST tax law were stymied ...Read More

Heath Hinegardner There is an old saying that good politics makes bad laws. President Obama’s proposal this week to restrict the size and scope of banks, effectively reviving the Depression-era Banking Act, or “Glass-Steagall,” is certainly good politics. It puts the Republicans back on the defensive and distracts ...Read More

President Barack Obama has said Wall Street must repay $117bn (

By MARTIN VAUGHAN and LAURA MECKLER WASHINGTON — House and Senate negotiators are considering applying for the first time the Medicare payroll tax to investment income as part of a compromise to pay for a health overhaul. The extra Medicare tax would apply only to the wealthy and ...Read More

Venezuela’s President, Hugo Chavez, has said troops will seize control of any business that raise prices in response to the devaluation of its currency. He said there was no reason for prices to go up, and speculators’ businesses would be handed over to the workers. Venezuelans have rushed ...Read More

Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez has announced that the national currency, the bolivar, will be devalued for the first time since 2005 by at least 17%. The bolivar, whose rate is set by government decree, will be devalued from its current rate of 2.15 to the US dollar to ...Read More