Ireland – Page 8 – Infinite Unknown

Steinbrueck Says Euro States May Bail Out Members

February 17, 2009 by Infinite

Peer Steinbrueck, Germany’s finance minister, prepares for the start of an EU finance ministers meeting in Brussels on Feb. 9, 2009. Photographer: Jock Fistick/Bloomberg News

Feb. 17 (Bloomberg) — German Finance Minister Peer Steinbrueck said euro-region countries may be forced to bail out cash-strapped members of the 16-nation bloc, going further than his counterparts in saying euro states can’t be allowed to fail.

“Some countries are slowly getting into difficulties with their payments,” Steinbrueck said late yesterday in a speech in Dusseldorf. “The euro-region treaties don’t foresee any help for insolvent countries, but in reality the other states would have to rescue those running into difficulty.”

Steinbrueck’s comments underscore mounting investor concerns as European nations pile on debt to bail out banks and counter the deepest recession since World War II. The EU governing treaty says member states aren’t liable for other members’ obligations.

While declining to identify countries facing problems, the German finance chief said Ireland, which has a widening budget deficit, is in a “very difficult situation.” The comment came in response to a question from the audience. Ireland’s debt- rating outlook was cut by Moody’s Investors Service Jan. 30.

Ireland could default on debt

February 15, 2009 by Infinite

FEARS are mounting that Ireland could default on its soaring national debt pile, amid continuing worries about its troubled banking sector.

The cost of buying insurance against Irish government bonds rose to record highs on Friday, having almost tripled in a week. Debt-market investors now rank Ireland as the most troubled economy in Europe.

Simon Johnson, the former chief economist of the International Monetary Fund, called for this weekend’s meeting of G7 finance ministers to put Ireland’s troubles at the top of the agenda.

Johnson said: “Don’t, please, tell me more about the basic principles of financial reform unless and until you have addressed the Irish problem. And don’t tell me the Irish have to sort this out for themselves. Eventually, the world always comes to help; check your notes on Iceland.

“It’s much better and much cheaper to come in early and decisively. We need a plan of action for Ireland, and we need it now.”

Pledges made by Ireland to support its banking sector amount to 220% of the country’s annual economic output. The total loans held in Irish banks are more than 11 times the size of the economy.

Irish minister bans climate change adverts

February 10, 2009 by Infinite

An advertising campaign urging people to help tackle climate change has been banned by Northern Ireland’s Environment minister because he does not believe humans are the main cause of global warming.

Sammy Wilson said the ads suggested that turning off a television rather than putting it on standby could help save the planet, a notion he described as “patent nonsense”.

– Al Gore sued by over 30.000 Scientists for fraud (YouTube)
– World is getting colder: It’s the sun, not CO2, that’s to blame (Washington Times)
– Global warning: We are actually heading towards a new Ice Age, claim scientists (Daily Mail)
– Scientists find greenhouse gas hysteria to be myth (World Net Daily)
– 2008 was the year man-made global warming was disproved (Telegraph)
– Army: Sun, Not Man, Is Causing Climate Change (Wired)
– World might be heading towards Ice Age (Economic Times)

The East Antrim MP said he was in favour of encouraging people in Northern Ireland to save energy, but added that the link between carbon emissions and global warming was a matter of political debate.

The Green Party and the campaign group Friends of the Earth demanded his resignation, but Mr Wilson said he had a right to hold his own opinion on the issue. The DUP representative added last night: “Why should I resign? I fulfil all my ministerial obligations in all areas of my department, and the idea that I should resign just because I hold a different view from other people on what is a very controversial topic is nonsense. And it just shows the intolerance of these people if they think I should resign because I have a different opinion.”

Brian Wilson, a Green Party assembly member, said the minister was being “grossly irresponsible”, adding: “While the minister is entitled to his own views, he is not entitled to ignore the “overwhelming scientific” evidence that man-made climate change exists.”

By Chris Green
Tuesday, 10 February 2009

Source: The Independent

Global Economic Crisis Accelerating

January 21, 2009January 21, 2009 by Infinite

– Jim Rogers: ‘UK has nothing to sell’ (Financial Times):
“The City of London is finished, the financial centre of the world is moving east.”

– Jim Rogers: Obama administration run by people who caused the latest financial problems (BBC News)

– The Obama Stimulus Plan Won’t Work (Lew Rockwell)

– SERIOUSLY ALARMED (Telegraph):
(Even Mr. Ambrose Evans-Pritchard is now alarmed!)

– King paves way to start Bank print presses (Times Online)

– Sterling hits 23-year low against dollar (Financial Times)

– Geithner pledges ‘dramatic’ action (Financial Times)

– Portugal says S&P downgrade due to global crisis (Reuters)

– Singapore Economy May Post Biggest Decline on Record (Bloomberg)

– Emerging markets face $180 bn investment decline (Business Standard)

– French government to pump €6bn into ailing car industry (Guardian)

– Japan’s ‘Severe’ Recession May Last Three Years, Yoshikawa Says (Bloomberg)

– BHP Billiton to cut 6000 jobs and close mine (Times Online)

– Eaton to Cut 5200 Jobs in a 2nd Wave of Reductions (Bloomberg)

– Record redundancies push unemployment to 1.92 million (Times Online)

– Ecuador to Cut $1.5 Billion in Imports to Defend Use of Dollar (Bloomberg)

– Ex-Scots bankers could face Holyrood inquiry (Times Online)

– Ireland’s Banks Sink With Decline of ‘Celtic Tiger’ (Bloomberg)

– Patrick Rocca, ‘poster boy’ of Ireland’s Celtic Tiger, kills himself (Times Online)

– Bankers accused in crisis could face trials in US (Guardian)

– Hedge Fund Run by Ex-Car Salesman Is Scam, SEC Says (Bloomberg)

– Federal Home Loan Banks may have to borrow from US (Los Angeles Times)

– Merrill Clients Pulled $10 Billion in Fourth Quarter (Bloomberg)

– Standard Life investors demand compensation after ‘cash’ fund invests in toxic debt (Telegraph)

– Toyota Tops GM in Global Car Sales in 2008 (Washington Post)

– Citigroup Makes Stock Incentive Awards to Executives (Bloomberg)

Help Ireland or it will exit euro, economist warns

January 19, 2009 by Infinite

A leading Irish economist has called on Dublin to threaten withdrawal from the euro unless Europe’s big powers do more to rescue Ireland’s economy.

David McWilliams, a former official at the Irish central bank, has said that Ireland could withdraw from the euro if they are not given more help Photo: Rex Features

“This is war: countries have to defend themselves,” said David McWilliams, a former official at the Irish central bank.

“It is essential that we go to Europe and say we have a serious problem. We say, either we default or we pull out of Europe,” he told RTE radio.

“If Ireland continues hurtling down this road, which is close to default, the whole of Europe will be badly affected. The credibility of the euro will be badly affected. Then Spain might default, Italy and Greece,” he said.

Mr McWilliams, a former UBS director and now prominent broadcaster, has broken the ultimate taboo by evoking threats to precipitate an EMU crisis, which would risk a chain reaction across the eurozone’s southern belt, where yield spreads on state bonds are already flashing warning signals. The comments reflect growing bitterness in Dublin over the way the country has been treated after voting against the EU’s Lisbon Treaty.

“If we have a single currency there are obligations and responsibilities on both sides. The idea that Germany and France can just hang us out to dry, as has been the talk in the last couple of days should not be taken lying down,” he said.

Global Economic Crisis Accelerating

January 16, 2009January 16, 2009 by Infinite

“An open, competitive, and liberalized financial market can effectively allocate scarce resources in a manner that promotes stability and prosperity far better than governmental intervention.” – Henry Paulson

– Banks Need Second Portion Of Bailout Fund: Paulson (CNNMoney)

– Sharpest output fall on way, warns bank chief (Independent)

– Dow May Fall to 6,000 Should Low Break, Acampora Says (Bloomberg)

– Minneapolis’ ‘Star Tribune’ Newspaper Files Chapter 11 (USA Today)

– Darling Said to Prepare Guarantee for UK Lending (Bloomberg)

– Anglo Irish Bank nationalised (Independent)

– Hertz to cut more than 4000 jobs (Reuters)

– Citigroup: Mortgage Losses ‘Rapidly Approaching’ Historic Peak (CNN Money):
NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Citigroup Inc. said consumer delinquencies and subsequent loan losses accelerated in many parts of the world. Chief Financial Officer Gary Crittenden said during a conference call with investors, “Loss rates in [credit] cards have now surpassed their historic highs while in first mortgages the rate is rapidly approaching the previous peak.”

– Rescue of Banks Hints at Nationalization (New York Times)

– Wall Street layoff storm also soaks office landlords (Reuters):
NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wall Street’s employment tsunami, most recently swamping Citibank Inc (C.N), is also undermining the island of Manhattan’s 443 million square foot office market, threatening to drag rents down 35 percent from a second quarter 2008 high.

– Oil tankers are going nowhere — slowly (Seattle Times)

– Shoppers ‘Sidelined’ In Long Retail Slump (Washington Post)

– AMD to Cut 1100 Jobs, Lower Salaries (Wall Street Journal)

– Ireland Leads Surge in European Government Bond Risk to Records (Bloomberg)

– Treasuries Tumble as Stocks Rise on Government Bailout of Bank of America (Bloomberg)

– The more black holes D.C. fills, the more open up (Money And Markets)

– China’s US bond appetite to slow: economists (AFP)

– China’s Economy Faces 2009 ‘Hard Landing,’ Fitch Says (Bloomberg)

– Chinese economy imploding amid global depression: analyst (AFP)

– Intel profit sinks 90% (CNN Money)

– WellPoint cutting 1500 positions (Reuters)

– Circuit City to shut down (CNN Money)

– Bear in the beer — you know it’s bad when even suds sales slip (Newsday)

– No wind in boat show sales (Chicago Tribune)

– Pictures: Growing stocks of unsold cars around the world (Guardian)

Global Economic Crisis Accelerating

January 15, 2009 by Infinite

– UK jobless rise of 40000 in a week just ‘tip of the iceberg’ (Telegraph)

– Schwarzenegger Says Deficit has ‘Incapacitated’ State (Bloomberg):
Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) — Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said California has been so “incapacitated” by a fiscal crisis that threatens to leave it unable to pay bills within weeks that the only issue he and lawmakers must consider is how to fix it.

– Charter misses $74 mln in debt interest payments (Reuters):
NEW YORK, Jan 15 (Reuters) – Charter Communications, the fourth largest U.S. cable operator, said on Thursday it missed interest payments of $73.7 million as it continues to negotiate a debt restructuring with bondholders.
The company said it has until Feb. 15 to make the payment and avoid default, which could push it into bankruptcy.

– ECB cuts rates by 50 points to 2% (Financial Times):
Eurozone interest rates fell by half a percentage point to their lowest in more than three years on Thursday as the European Central Bank said that it expected the recession to deepen and signalled that borrowing costs could fall further.
Jean-Claude Trichet, ECB president, warned that growth forecasts published only last month would have to be revised downwards in a sign of the ferocity of the downturn.

– Pfizer May Fire 2,400, One-Third of U.S. Sales Force (Bloomberg):
Jan. 15 (Bloomberg) — Pfizer Inc., the world’s biggest drugmaker, may fire almost a third of its U.S. sales force, or as many as 2,400 workers, in a plan under consideration by senior management, people familiar with the discussions said.h the discussions said.

– JPMorgan chief says 2009 will be bleak (Financial Times):
The US financial and economic crisis will worsen this year as hard-hit consumers default on credit cards and other loans, Jamie Dimon, chief executive of JPMorgan Chase, has predicted in an interview with the Financial Times.

– JPMorgan Profit Drops 76 Percent on Asset Writedowns (Bloomberg)

– Yet another blow to the US newspaper industry (Guardian)

– Aircraft industry shocked by view from ground (Financial Times)

– Airbus forecasts ‘very challenging’ year (Financial Times):
Airbus on Thursday said its new commercial aircraft orders had fallen sharply last year, as the European aerospace group forecast “a very challenging year” for the industry in 2009. Net new orders fell by 42 per cent last year to 777, from a record 1,341 won in 2007.

– Irish government fears IMF intervention (Guardian)

– Ireland plans drastic cuts to prevent debt crisis (Telegraph):
Ireland is to demand pay cuts for civil servants and public employees to prevent the budget deficit soaring to 12pc of gross domestic product by next year – becoming the first country in the eurozone to resort to 1930s-style wage deflation to claw back competitiveness.

– If anyone doubted scale of crisis, work even halts in Dubai on world’s tallest tower (Scotsman)

– Hedge funds ‘encourage bankruptcies’ for profit (Guardian)

– Spain’s Debt Costs Rise at Bond Sale After S&P Alert (Bloomberg)

– Banks gird for commercial property collapse (FinancialWeek):
Some of the biggest financial institutions have huge, potentially troublesome commercial real estate stakes, Standard & Poors data shows. Based on information in their most recent financial reports, Citigroup and Barclays each had more than $20 billion worth of commercial mortgage-related investments. Merrill Lynch, acquired by Bank of America last year, had some $19.7 billion in such investments, according to S&P.

Irish banks are saved in €7bn bailout

December 21, 2008 by Infinite

THE Irish government is in talks to bail out its three biggest banks, in a move that would see it take a stake of up to 80% in Anglo Irish Bank, which was last week rocked by a scandal over secret loans to its former chairman.

A total of up to €7 billion (£6.5 billion) will be injected into the three biggest banks, most of it through the government buying new preference shares in the institutions.

Bank of Ireland and Allied Irish Bank, the country’s two largest banks, will get €2 billion each from the government, with shareholders able to invest another €1 billion in each. Anglo will receive €1 billion from the state.

Shareholders in Anglo have already been hard hit. The bank’s shares have lost 98% of their value in the past year, falling sharply last week with revelations that the chairman, Sean Fitzpatrick, had failed to disclose €87m of loans he had received from the bank.

What part of Ireland’s ‘no’ does the EU not understand?

December 15, 2008 by Infinite

Asking the Irish to vote again on the Lisbon treaty is arrogant, insulting and undemocratic

Imagine if, following the election of Barack Obama by 52.9% of American voters, the Republican party, which got just 45.7% of votes, demanded another election. Imagine if the Republicans described Obama’s victory as a “triumph of ignorance” – brought about by an “unspeakable” and “ignorant” mass of people who should have been “swatted away by the forces of the establishment” – and insisted on holding a second election so that, this time, the voters could “get it right”.

There would be uproar, outrage, widespread disgust at such elite disdain for the democratic process. Well, now you know how the Irish people must feel. In June this year, 53.4% of Irish voters rejected the Lisbon treaty, against 46.6% who supported it (giving the “No” camp a “sweeping victory” similar to Obama’s). Yet now the Irish will be asked to vote again. EU officials’ behind-doors deal to force a second referendum in Ireland reveals their utter contempt for Irish voters, and for democracy itself. It is an historic sucker punch against the sovereignty of the people.

As soon as the Irish people’s ballots were counted in June, their rejection of Lisbon was treated as the “wrong” answer, as if they had been taking part in a multiple-choice maths exam and had failed to work out that 2+2=4. Now, they will be given a chance to sit the exam again, “until [they] come up with the right answer,” says George Galloway, attacking EU elitism. The notion that the Irish “got it wrong” exposes gobsmacking ignorance about democracy in the upper echelons of the EU. The very fact that a majority of Irish people said no to Lisbon made it the “right answer”, true and sovereign and final. “No” really does mean no.

Wrong oil blamed for pork scare

December 8, 2008 by Infinite

Butchers and supermarkets were told to remove NI pork products

A contaminated pig meat scare which prompted the recall of Irish pork products is being blamed on unlicensed oil used at an animal feed factory.

The type of oil used in a burner to recycle food products into animal feed was “inappropriate”, said a senior Irish Agriculture Department inspector.

Meanwhile, the UK Food Standards Agency said it believed no pigs in Northern Ireland had consumed the tainted feed.

But it said pork labelled ROI or NI should still be thrown out or returned.

The agency said retailers and caterers should “temporarily remove products manufactured in Northern Ireland from sale until they can satisfy themselves that these products don’t contain pork sourced from the Republic of Ireland after 1 September”.

“Pork products will reappear on sale once retailers and caterers have carried out appropriate checks,” it added.

Irish will vote on EU’s Lisbon Treaty for a second time next year

December 8, 2008 by Infinite

Message from the EU ‘New World Order’ to Irish voters:

You haven’t done what you were supposed to do, so we give you a second chance.

This time we will scare the hell out of you and/or offer you some consumer checks, so that you will do the right thing, which is of course what we want you to do. That is the new definition of free will.

If you reject the Lisbon Treaty again you will have to vote a third time and we will provide Diebold voting machines to make sure we get what we want.
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Irish voters who rejected the Lisbon Treaty in June will be asked to vote again on the issue next year, paving the way for controversial EU laws to be introduced in Britain.

All 27 member states must ratify the Treaty before it comes into force. Ireland, Poland and the Czech Republic are the only nations that have not yet agreed to do so.

British voters were initially promised a referendum on whether to adopt the EU Constitution, but the Government decided against allowing it after the document was rebranded as the Lisbon Treaty.

On Thursday the Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen will confirm that a new vote will be held in 2009.

Diplomats have named October as the most likely date for the vote, while Government sources said April was also being considered

Mr Cowen said he believed that the economic crisis could help persuade some of those who voted against the Treaty to change their minds.

The Government is expected to argue that Ireland would have been in a worse position if it had not signed up to the euro, and that the Treaty will speed up decision-making and help tackle the downturn.

Company crashes set to hit record next year

December 8, 2008December 8, 2008 by Infinite

Record numbers of companies will go bankrupt next year with 200,000 insolvencies in Europe alone and “an explosion” of failed businesses in the US, according to the world’s largest credit insurer.

The US will see 62,000 companies go bust next year, compared with 42,000 this year and 28,000 last year, says a report by Euler Hermes, part of German insurer Allianz.

The absolute numbers, however, pale in comparison with the figures from western Europe, where the larger number of small companies mean insolvencies are expected to rise by a third from 149,000 last year to 197,000 next.

“The financial crisis will increase the risk of bankruptcy dramatically, particularly next year,” said Romeo Grill, chief economist at Euler Hermes. “There will be an explosion in the US but also big rises in Europe and especially the UK.”

Mr Grill said he expected most company failures in Europe to be focused around the struggling car, retail and textile sectors as well as logistics.

The country with the highest number of insolvencies expected for next year is France with 63,000. But in Europe, Spain, Ireland and the UK are forecast to see the most dramatic rises.

Nearly four times as many Spanish companies will go bust next year as in 2007 while it will be nearly double in Ireland and the UK with 640 and 38,000 businesses respectively.

German banks lent most to Iceland borrowers: BIS

October 23, 2008 by Infinite

FRANKFURT (Reuters) – German banks lent the most to Icelandic borrowers and were owed $21 billion before the recent financial storm swept markets, according to figures released by the Bank for International Settlements.

The research shows that German banks, as well as handing out almost one third of loans in the Nordic outpost, are the most exposed to some of Europe’s fragile economies, such as Spain and Ireland.

In a snapshot taken at the end of June, Germany’s banks lent far more in crisis-stricken Iceland than had rivals in Britain, who were owed just $4 billion, or Iceland’s neighbor Sweden with less than $400 million.

Despite being Europe’s biggest economy, Germany’s levels of lending to countries such as Iceland are disproportionately high.

And in the week that Berlin launched a rescue plan for its banks, the first signs were emerging that lending at the height of the Icelandic bubble had come back to haunt Germany.

BayernLB, a state-backed regional lender that was the first to seek government help this week, said it expected to write off 800 million euros ($1.03 billion) of its 1.5 billion euro exposure to the tiny island state.

ECB raises key rate to 4.25%

July 3, 2008 by Infinite

FRANKFURT: The European Central Bank, spooked by soaring prices for food and fuel, raised interest rates Thursday, joining several other central banks in battling a global eruption of inflation.

The quarter-point hike, which the bank had signaled last month, had little initial effect on markets, with the euro treading water against the dollar and stocks staying relatively steady. Central banks in Sweden and Norway also raised rates this week, citing inflation. On Thursday, Indonesia raised its key interest rate for the third time this year, while India raised its key lending rate twice last month.

The Federal Reserve in the United States, where short-term interest rates are only half of those in Europe, has so far declined to join them.

The European Central Bank’s decision deepens a recent divergence in monetary policy across the Atlantic, ending a long period when it tended to follow the course set by the Fed.

But the sharp rise in inflation has put Europe’s bank into a policy bind because it has been accompanied, in recent days, by evidence that the economy here is deteriorating much like that of the United States.

Manufacturing activity in the 15 countries that use the euro shrank in June for the first time in three years, according to a survey of European purchasing managers. In Spain and Ireland, where a collapse in housing prices has magnified the problems, there is a real risk of recession.

Still, the European Central Bank, hewing to its inflation-fighting mandate, pressed on with the expected increase, moving the benchmark rate to 4.25 percent from 4 percent. Among other things, it is intended as a warning to unions not to use higher inflation as a lever to demand hefty wage increases.
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Say goodbye to the Dollar and to Wall Street.
Got Gold and Silver? – The Infinite Unknown

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It was not clear, before an afternoon news conference chaired by the bank’s president, Jean-Claude Trichet, whether the rate increase would be a one-time gesture or the start of a cycle of tighter monetary policy.

Several economists said they doubted the bank could tighten much further, given the parlous economic situation.

“The ECB is hiking at a time when confidence is plummeting,” said Thomas Mayer, the chief European economist at Deutsche Bank. “The question is, ‘what do you do when asset prices fall at the same time that consumer prices rise?’ The central bankers seem to have reached the end of the line.”

Irish EU vote lost, officials say

June 14, 2008 by Infinite

European leaders said they had no “plan B” if the treaty was rejected

Substantial vote tallies across Ireland show the European Union Lisbon reform treaty has been rejected, Irish Justice Minister Dermot Ahern has said.

European Commission head Jose Manuel Barroso said all indications were that Ireland had indeed rejected the treaty.

He called for other states to continue their ratification processes and said a solution should be sought.

The treaty must be ratified by all 27 members. Only Ireland has held a public vote on it.

With results in from 39 of 43 constituencies, the No campaign was ahead by 53.6% to 46.4%, state broadcaster RTE reported.

Mr Ahern was the first senior figure from the Irish government to admit that it looked like the treaty had failed.

“It looks like this will be a No vote,” Mr Ahern said on live television. “At the end of the day, for a myriad of reasons, the people have spoken.”

Obviously it’s disappointing. It’s quite clear there’s a very substantial No vote

Dermot Ahern, Justice Minister

Q&A: Irish referendum

Mark Mardell’s Euroblog

In quotes: Referendum reaction

He said it looked like other EU countries would ratify the treaty, so an Irish No vote would leave the EU in “uncharted waters”.

Mr Barroso said he had spoken to Irish Prime Minister Brian Cowen and agreed with him that this was not a vote against the EU.

“Ireland remains committed to a strong Europe,” he said.

“Ratifications should continue to take their course.”

Mr Barroso said EU leaders would have to decide at a summit next week how to proceed.

The people of Ireland have shown enormous courage and wisdom in analysing the facts presented to them and making the decision they have

Declan Ganley, Libertas

UK to press ahead

Send us your comments

However, the BBC’s Oana Lungescu in Brussels says the third failed referendum in three years on the EU’s reform plans is bound to undermine the bloc’s public legitimacy and dent its confidence when it faces other big players on the world stage.

France and Germany quickly issued a joint statement expressing regret over the Irish result.

European leaders earlier said they had no “plan B” for how to proceed if Ireland’s electorate voted No.

Declan Ganley of the anti-treaty lobby group Libertas said that if the No vote had indeed triumphed that it was “a great day for Ireland”.

“The people of Ireland have shown enormous courage and wisdom in analysing the facts presented to them andmaking the decision they have,” Mr Ganley said.

The Collapsing Dollar – Authorities lose patience

August 22, 2008April 19, 2008 by Infinite

Jean-Claude Juncker, the EU’s ‘Mr Euro’, has given the clearest warning to date that the world authorities may take action to halt the collapse of the dollar and undercut commodity speculation by hedge funds.

Jean-Claude Juncker, who is calling for Washington to
take steps to halt the slide of the dollar

Momentum traders have blithely ignored last week’s accord by the G7 powers, which described “sharp fluctuations in major currencies” as a threat to economic and financial stability. The euro has surged to fresh records this week, touching $1.5982 against the dollar and £0.8098 against sterling yesterday.

“I don’t have the impression that financial markets and other actors have correctly and entirely understood the message of the G7 meeting,” he said.

Mr Juncker, who doubles as Luxembourg premier and chair of eurozone financiers, told the Luxembourg press that he had been invited to the White House last week just before the G7 at the urgent request of President George Bush. The two leaders discussed the dangers of rising “protectionism” in Europe. Mr Juncker warned that matters could get out of hand unless America took steps to halt the slide in the dollar.