Greece

The alarm over potential bank runs in Greece and Spain this week has highlighted an often-overlooked fact: Europe's debt crisis is also, in many ways, a major banking crisis. In capitals such as Athens, Madrid and Rome, large portions of the sovereign debt racked up by spendthrift governments are owed to the countries' own banks, locking governments and the banks in an embrace so tight that disaster for one would almost certainly spell doom for the other. International bailouts for Greece, Ireland and Portugal have helped to keep not just their governments but also their banks afloat, as well as financial institutions in other parts of Europe with large exposure to those nations' debts.

LONDON - With investor confidence draining away and the value of the euro plunging, Europe struggled anew Wednesday to come up with a united game plan to keep its currency union intact and its economies from collapsing. Competing visions embraced by the continent's political heavyweights, France and Germany, clashed at an informal summit of European Union leaders with little chance of reconciliation even as fears grew that Greece could be forced out of the Eurozone and into a chaotic default.

The prospect of a resolution to the Greek debt crisis, bolstered by Greek lawmakers' approval of a sweeping austerity plan, has buoyed investor spirits: After falling for much of the last two months, in part out of concern about Europe's debt troubles, the stock market rallied each day last week, with the Dow Jones industrial average jumping 5.4% to close within 228 points of its late April high. Still, important issues need to be resolved for the Greek aid package to go forward.

CAMP DAVID, Md. - In a significant political victory for President Obama, the leaders of Germany and other European nations endorsed a policy of economic growth over austerity and emphasized that Greece, which is trying to battle its way out of a crippling debt crisis, should remain in the Eurozone. Meeting on the cloistered grounds of the presidential retreat here, the leaders of the Group of 8 industrialized nations said in a joint statement that Eurozone economies should work to narrow deficits through "fiscal consolidation" and that each country must decide for itself the best mix of policies for promoting economic recovery.

ATHENS - Fear for the health ofGreece's banks increased Wednesday after a rush of withdrawals as the country braces for fresh elections that could determine whether it remains part of the Eurozone. Reports that depositors pulled out nearly $1 billion on a single day fueled warnings this week from the Greek president of a run on already shaky financial institutions. There were no lines of worried customers outside banks in Athens on Wednesday, but one analyst said a panic could easily be sparked in the country's febrile political and economic environment.

Nearly 70 years later, Athens, one of the last European capitals to commemorate those who perished at the hands of Nazi forces, finally has a Holocaust memorial. But since its dedication in May, synagogues have been targeted, Jewish cemeteries desecrated, Holocaust monuments elsewhere in Greece vandalized and the Jewish Museum of Greece, in the capital, defaced with swastikas. What's more, an alarming chunk of Athenians in November supported the election of a neo-Nazi candidate to the capital's city council.

When Germany'schancellor, Hannelore Kraft, met France's president, Francois Hollande, in a sunny Berlin earlier this week, they agreed on a compelling strategy to save the Eurozone. With no elections due in any Eurozone country for the next two years, they were able to stretch the austerity timeline for Greece, Spain and Italy, add some elements of growth stimulus but also keep up the essential pressure for fiscal discipline and structural reform. As a result, even devastated Greece began to glimpse light at the end of the tunnel.

Manolis Kandaris' wife was in labor and he wanted to get her to a hospital, fast. So he reached for the car keys, fetched the video camera and dashed out to get his clunky Citroen running. He never made it. As he sprinted to the car, muggers attacked him about a block from his apartment. And when he resisted their attempts to wrench the camera from him, the 44-year-old pharmaceuticals executive was stabbed to death. His wife found him lying in a pool of blood as she hobbled to the car with the help of her mother.

CAMP DAVID, Md. - In a significant political victory for President Obama, the leaders of Germany and other European nations endorsed a policy of economic growth over austerity and emphasized that Greece, which is trying to battle its way out of a crippling debt crisis, should remain in the Eurozone. Meeting on the cloistered grounds of the presidential retreat here, the leaders of the Group of 8 industrialized nations said in a joint statement that Eurozone economies should work to narrow deficits through "fiscal consolidation" and that each country must decide for itself the best mix of policies for promoting economic recovery.

Question: What is the anticipated effect of the financial problems in Greece on tourists this summer? Mick Lowry Los Angeles Answer: That's not an easy question to answer, because negotiations over Greece's financial fate continued last week, and the outcome will determine how uncomfortable - or not - life there will be. What has happened to Greece is a bit like what happens to many of us: It borrowed too much money....

The alarm over potential bank runs in Greece and Spain this week has highlighted an often-overlooked fact: Europe's debt crisis is also, in many ways, a major banking crisis. In capitals such as Athens, Madrid and Rome, large portions of the sovereign debt racked up by spendthrift governments are owed to the countries' own banks, locking governments and the banks in an embrace so tight that disaster for one would almost certainly spell doom for the other. International bailouts for Greece, Ireland and Portugal have helped to keep not just their governments but also their banks afloat, as well as financial institutions in other parts of Europe with large exposure to those nations' debts.

WASHINGTON — For months, President Obama has been urging his European allies to balance their zeal for spending cuts with policies to spur economic growth. His pleas have mostly been ignored. But now, as Obama prepares to host the Group of 8 industrialized nations' summit Friday and Saturday, his pro-growth argument has taken on new force — and some measure of desperation. The G-8 gathering at Camp David will cover an array of topics, but given the escalating crisis in Greece, the future of the Eurozone is expected to dominate the talks, raising the stakes for the summit and for Obama.

When Germany'schancellor, Hannelore Kraft, met France's president, Francois Hollande, in a sunny Berlin earlier this week, they agreed on a compelling strategy to save the Eurozone. With no elections due in any Eurozone country for the next two years, they were able to stretch the austerity timeline for Greece, Spain and Italy, add some elements of growth stimulus but also keep up the essential pressure for fiscal discipline and structural reform. As a result, even devastated Greece began to glimpse light at the end of the tunnel.

ATHENS - Fear for the health ofGreece's banks increased Wednesday after a rush of withdrawals as the country braces for fresh elections that could determine whether it remains part of the Eurozone. Reports that depositors pulled out nearly $1 billion on a single day fueled warnings this week from the Greek president of a run on already shaky financial institutions. There were no lines of worried customers outside banks in Athens on Wednesday, but one analyst said a panic could easily be sparked in the country's febrile political and economic environment.

Re "Greece still in postelection impasse," May 9 Kevin Featherstone of the London School of Economics is right when he says that Greece must choose between Eurozone membership and the so-called rescue package. What Greece faces are choices offered not by Greece but by the global financial system. It set the path of recovery for Greece, a path that guarantees creditors get paid at the expense of the people of Greece. Austerity does not mean prosperity, as it is not designed for such an outcome.

The European elections have concluded and the results are clear: Voters in France and Greece are a lot smarter than economic policymakers in the United States. Or at least they're a lot more attuned to the folly of relying on austerity as a tool of economic growth. If you've missed the weekend's headlines, French voters elected their first Socialist president since Francois Mitterand left office in 1995. The new president, Francois Hollande, won after promising to loosen the reins of economic austerity and impose more sacrifices on the rich.

In response to "From Bad to Worse," editorial, June 21: As a Greek citizen and scholar I found your editorial very offending. Your sarcastic statement that Greece "claims" (my quotation mark) to have invented democracy is insulting to all Greeks. Especially disturbing is your passing judgment as to how voters of a free society such as Greece should vote. It reflects an elitist as well as an interventionist attitude on your behalf. You seem to be nostalgic for the days when the U.S. government manipulated political life in Greece by undermining popularly elected governments and assisting a military dictatorship.

THE BEST WAY TO PATMOS From LAX, connecting service (change of planes) to Athens is offered on KLM, Air France, Lufthansa, British, Delta and Swiss. Restricted round-trip fares begin at $476, excluding taxes and fees. For information on ferryboats leaving from Piraeus (Athens) to Patmos with ports of call along the way, see http://www.ferries.gr . One-way tickets start about $46. TELEPHONES To call the numbers below from the U.S., dial 011 (the international dialing code)

Political upheaval in Europe reached a new apex over the weekend when French voters threw out their incumbent president and Greeks gave the heave-ho to the ruling parliamentary coalition. The results suggest that a new consensus is emerging in Europe in favor of more economic stimulus, but they also call into question the continent's ability to agree on a plan to keep its fiscal problems from spreading uncontrollably. European leaders had agreed to a series of pacts that would rescue Greece and other defaulting countries in exchange for steep reductions in their red ink, while also requiring every country that relies on the euro to shrink their debts and curb deficit spending.

ATHENS — As it teeters on the brink of political chaos, Greece passed another day without a government after highly splintered elections that gave no party overall control of Parliament. Politicians remained deadlocked Tuesday over how to handle Greece's monumental debt crisis, fueling fear far beyond the country's borders that it could collapse into financial mayhem and wreak untold consequences on the world economy. Deepening the feeling of instability, the second-place finisher in Sunday's elections, a staunch leftist, said he would try to stitch together a coalition government with the aim of tearing up Greece's bailout agreements, a move that would spark a dangerous escalation of the euro debt crisis.