european union

Sunday's elections in France and Greece were a firm vote against austerity, and regardless of the merits of either side of the debate, that means the future of the eurozone is again in doubt. Here's why the bond markets care so much -- and why you should, too.

On Friday, Greece reached a deal to "restructure" its national debt downward by about $133 billion. That's the biggest sovereign restructuring in world history. But don't worry. According to Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke, it's no big deal for the U.S.

With much at stake for the U.S., President Barack Obama said Thursday that the most important task for world leaders gathered at an economic summit in France was to resolve the European financial crisis. The EU had taken important steps toward a solution, the president said, but "we're going to have to flesh out more of the details about how the plan will be fully and decisively implemented."

Value-added taxes are big revenue generators in Europe, but if you're not a local person or business, you're supposed to be able to get them refunded. Tell that to the almost 72% of companies spending money overseas that have had trouble getting their VAT refunds or the 21% that have been unable to reclaim any VAT at all.

LDK Solar has long depended on demand driven by government subsidies from countries such as Germany, Spain and Italy, which makes it vulnerable in this period of European austerity. Trefis has revised its estimates for LDK Solar down -- but still meaningfully above the market price.

In its first government complaint against a rival, Microsoft has accused Google of antitrust behavior in Europe. The European Commission is investigating the search giant after smaller websites alleged that Google was unfairly burying them in search results.

The European debt crisis is back: Portugal is in political turmoil, and may need a major bailout, and Spain may too. But the E.U.'s strong healthy are rebelling against propping up their weaker neighbors. The real issue, though, is that the E.U. hasn't yet addressed the fundamental flaw built into it at the euro's creation.

One would think that with the Mideast crisis, oil prices skyrocketing and U.S. manufacturing rebounding smartly, the buck would be flying high. But no. Why that's so may lie in international perceptions about where interest rates are heading.

The Spanish government's successful bond auction Thursday reassured investors, pushing the euro to a one-week high against the dollar. Portugal and Italy also tested the bond market this week with their own auctions. But how much appetite for bonds do investors really have?

World markets got a boost this week from Japan's pledge to help overly indebted EU nations. What's behind Japan's move? Sure, the spirit of global cooperation is part of it. But much more significant is Tokyo's need to keep pace with Beijing in the influence game.