In the aftermath of last week’s elections in Greece, in which voters resoundingly rejected further austerity, Europe is struggling to come to terms with Greek voters’ conflicting desire to stay in the Euro while also delaying necessary reforms.

A few weeks ago there was a wild rumor that Greece's debt crisis had been dealt with. The hope was that with enough debt relief and a "managed" default, Europe had bought time for global growth to lift the Greek economy, and Greek politicians would wring the country through massive austerity.

On May 8, 2012, the Atlantic Council hosted an on-the-record members’ conference call with Gideon Rachman, chief foreign affairs columnist at the Financial Times, on the repercussions of the French and Greek elections, as voters in both countries delivered a stinging rebuke to political parties which called for continued austerity and fiscal retrenchment.

On April 20, the Atlantic Council held a broad-ranging discussion with Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan on global economic dynamics as the global economic community converges on Washington for the World Bank-International Monetary Fund spring meetings.

US Chamber President and CEO Thomas Donohue called on the transatlantic community to “make history” by taking bold policy steps to further integrate the US and European economies. At an event hosted by the Atlantic Council on April 18—on the eve of the World Bank-International Monetary Fund spring meetings—Donohue had a clear message for leaders gathering in Washington: “stop all the hand-wringing.”

US Chamber President and CEO Thomas Donohue invoked the historic and deep ties between Europe and the United States, calling on the transatlantic community to “inject more ambition into our own economic partnership,” by completing a US-EU economic and trade pact to lower barriers, converge regulations, and expand job-creating trade and investment. 

Spanish sovereign bond yields are rising again. It seems that the ECB’s long term refinancing operation has not bought as much time as was hoped. But what are the markets worried about? Is it the backsliding by Spain’s government over its fiscal deficit targets? Or is it in fact austerity itself?

On December 15, 2011, the Atlantic Council partnered with PwC to host an inaugural high-level roundtable of leading business, government, and academic experts to analyze the global mismatch between skills and jobs, better known as the “skills gap,” and offer policy solutions. This issue brief summarizes the conclusions of that discussion. 

On April 9, the Global Business & Economics Program hosted a conference call with Kostas Bakoyannis and Alexis Papahelas to discuss the Greek political system and daily life under the country’s heavy austerity measures.

On March 27, the Global Business and Economics Program hosted a conference call with sovereign debt experts Anna Gelpern and Mitu Gulati to discuss Greece’s private debt restructuring and the possibility of other indebted Eurozone countries following in Athens’ footsteps.