Why many Republicans cannot stand Obama
"Beyond the health reform’s effect on the medical system, healthcare reform is the centerpiece of Obama's deliberate effort to end what historians have called the age of Reagan."
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/24/business/24leonhardt.html?hp

EU G-to-G credit mechanism still a possibility this week
Eurozone leaders battled it out last night over whether to extend a credit mechanism, consisting of bilateral loans, to ailing Greece. At the centre of the debate was German insistence on this being offered only as a last resort, not as a source of cheap credit, and being tied to rules of iron fiscal discipline. Germany, like the European Commission, also seems willing to have the IMF involved.
Economist: http://www.economist.com/blogs/charlemagne/2010/03/letting_greece_sink_bit_deeper
FT: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/ae54db14-3673-11df-8151-00144feabdc0.html
Comment: http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/gavinhewitt/

Barroso insists on a deal this week
European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso urged EU member states to agree on a credit mechanism for ailing governments this week, saying that the process begun on February 11 had gone non long enough. "I hope Member States will take determined and coordinated action. I urge them to take some decisions," he told the FT in an interview yesterday.

"No bail out does not mean no help," Barroso said. He points out that under EU rules there have already been bilateral loans across the Union to several countries, most recently Latvia. "I know Chancellor Merkel. She is a committed European, and I have no doubt that she will, if needed, be in favour of providing financial assistance to Greece," he said.

Why bilateral loans and not a eurozone system? "From consultations taken so far, and we have been working on this for some time now, it seems that coordinated financial loans is the more appropriate mechanism. It is fully compatible with the no bailout clause. It can be implemented with strict conditionality."
Interview: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/4da90494-35f0-11df-aa43-00144feabdc0.html
Transcript: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/36484548-35c4-11df-963f-00144feabdc0.html