Germans want ban on deficit budgets

GERMANY wants to ban governments in the eurozone from running deficit budgets, forcing them to spend no more than they take in taxes.

The proposal comes as EU finance ministers are reviewing the massive spending cuts they insisted on in Greece, Spain and Portugal and the €750 billion fund to lend to hard-pressed eurozone countries.

But despite both actions, the markets continued to punish the euro, pushing it to a four-year low, and increasing the cost of borrowing money for EU countries, including Greece.