The Economist, 14 January 2011
It’s 2010 all over again, says The Economist. Bond yields are spiking across much of the continent, and Portugal’s interest rate for ten-year bonds has risen to 6.7 percent. “Europe’s bail-out strategy, designed to calm financial markets and place a firewall between the euro zone’s periphery and its centre, is failing,” notes the business weekly. The solution? Plan B: Restructuring of sovereign debt. Failure to do so will only result in more pain, it claims, saying the IMF’s expertise must be matched with political courage on the part of the EU.
The leader of Greece’s leftist alliance SYRIZA is the new bright hope of Greek politics. Steering a course between pragmatism and the rhetoric of class warfare, he has unsettled Berlin, and not just those who back Angela Merkel's austerity policies. 
Europe’s economic woes have forced us to try to understand the secret Olympian world of global finance. But now that we pay more attention to bond yields and stability mechanisms, isn’t it clear that the experts up on their lofty peaks don’t know what’s going on either? 
This year’s Eurovision Song Contest is hosted by Azerbaijan, a country that is far from being a model democracy. An Estonian journalist takes a critical look at the deferential treatment enjoyed by the regime in Baku.