Debt contagion spreads to Italy. How about the U.S.?
JEREMY HOBSON: So what does the trouble in Italy mean for the U.S. economy?
Marketplace’s David Gura has that part of the story from Washington.
DAVID GURA: Ever since the European debt crisis started, there has been concern about contagion, a fear that it could spread from Greece, Ireland and Portugal, to larger European countries. But could it cross the Atlantic?
ROB CARNELL: Well, I guess the good news is that the Federal Reserve has been doing its own work.
That’s Rob Carnell, chief international economist with ING, in London.
CARNELL: Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke said that U.S. banks’ exposure to all this European distressed debt stuff is actually very, very small.
Global economists are worried that the countries involved in this crisis may be insolvent and in the end won’t be able to pay back their debts. And that could have a huge effect globally.
Stefano Manzocchi is an economics professor at LUISS, a university in Rome. He says the Euro is important worldwide, and if its value goes down,
STEFANO MANZOCCHI: The consequences will be very, very hard for the world as a whole.
Including the U.S.
In Washington, I’m David Gura, for Marketplace.
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