World Economy

Eurozone members and the IMF have agreed a 110bn-euro (£95bn; $146.2bn) three-year bail-out package to rescue Greece's embattled economy. Fear running to the banks. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8656649.stm http://articles.latimes.com/2010/may/03/world/la-fg-greece-bailout-20100503 Reporting from London — European countries and the International Monetary Fund on Sunday threw Greece a lifeline worth a stunning $146 billion after the financially foundering nation unveiled a stinging program of spending cuts and tax hikes to reduce its enormous government deficit. At an emergency meeting in Brussels, finance ministers from the 16 nations that use the euro currency signed off on the bailout package , which would grant low-interest loans to Athens to help it avoid a humiliating bankruptcy. The money would be available over the next three years and would come from the International Monetary Fund and fellow Eurozone countries such as Germany and France. 500-$5000 Personal L

Wegelin & Co, the oldest Swiss private bank, said on Thursday it would shut its doors permanently after more than 2 1/2 centuries, following its guilty plea to charges of helping wealthy Americans evade taxes through secret accounts. The plea, in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, marks the death knell for one of Switzerland's most storied banks , whose original European clients pre-date the American Revolution. It is also potentially a major turning point in a battle by U.S. authorities against Swiss bank secrecy. A major question was left hanging by the plea: Has the bank turned over, or does it plan to disclose, names of American clients to U.S. authorities? That is a key demand in a broad U.S. investigation of tax evasion through Swiss banks . "It is unclear whether the bank was required to turn over American client names who held secret Swiss bank accounts," said Jeffrey Neiman, a former federal prosecutor involved in other Swiss bank investigations who is now