The European Central Bank won crucial backing yesterday for its pledge to do whatever it takes to support the euro when a top EU legal adviser removed a key hurdle to the bank’s plans to buy government bonds to bolster the economy.

Securing a deal on Ireland’s €64bn bank debt is crucial to exiting the EU/IMF bailout programme. There are two strands to the negotiations. There are roughly €34bn in promissory notes covering losses in Anglo and Irish Nationwide. Under this set up, the Government is scheduled to pay €3.1bn every March until 2030. It is in talks to roll these promissory notes into a long-dated bond and is also trying to get relief on the €30bn used to bail out the pillar banks. Ireland needs support from the EU powerbrokers. But there is an election in Germany this year, where there is growing opposition to fiscal transfers. The Irish Examiner asks a range of German journalists and economists what they think of Ireland’s requests for bank debt relief

A leading German economist has said Ireland’s debt, at close to 120% of GDP, is not sustainable and the only way of resolving it is if the interest rates on the country’s massive loans are cut.

IRELAND, Greece and Portugal should default, sooner rather than later, according to a former ECB economist working with the German Institute for Economic Research.

The 32nd annual World Economic Forum began in New York today with discussions on where the global economy is headed and how to deal with terrorism.