European Debt Crisis

The European Debt Crisis began in late 2009 when the newly elected Greek government disclosed that its budget deficit was far larger than previously reported, which drove up borrowing costs across the more indebted members of the eurozone. Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Cyprus were ultimately unable to manage their debt without outside help; Greece received its first European Union and International Monetary Fund bailout in May 2010, and the European Financial Stability Facility and, later, the European Stability Mechanism were created to fund further rescues. The European Central Bank lowered interest rates and supplied more than a trillion euros in cheap loans to the banking system, and the crisis forced a lasting debate over whether a currency union can survive without a shared fiscal authority behind it.