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Euro hurt by Irish bailout unease, contagion fears

Forbes |

In Brief...

The euro fell further against the dollar Tuesday as investors fretted about Ireland's political turmoil after its government accepted the need for a massive bailout and amid fears that other European countries could get hammered by markets.. The overarching problem, though, remains the worry that European officials have not done enough to prevent the continent's debt crisis from moving on to another highly-indebted country, with Portugal and Spain considered the next dominos most likely to fall after Greece and Ireland. Spain is the big worry for EU policymakers because it accounts for around 10 percent of the eurozone economy, in contrast to Greece, Ireland and Portugal, which account for less than 2 percent each.. If Spain gets the same sort of treatment as Greece and Ireland, then there are real doubts that the eurozone would be able to come to the rescue.. In the back of investors' minds is the knowledge that previous attempts to keep on top of Europe's debt crisis did not stop the Irish domino from falling - the bailout of Greece, the EU-wide bank stress tests, which the Irish banks incredibly passed and massive liquidity injections from the European Central Bank were all meant to keep trouble at bay..

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