The View from Deutschland

Things are not looking to good in in Europe either. taking a look at the state of affairs in the German economy, Europe's largest and strongest, gives us a good picture of how dire the situation is over there as well.

This article is a good overview into the complexities of the current German situation.

"If we have a banking crisis in Germany with other countries cutting us off, then other banks will also face difficulties."
His comments come days after a German lender, SachsenLB, said it required a credit line of 17.3 billion euros ($23.2 billion) because of the investments it had made in securities affected by the U.S. subprime mortgage crisis. IKB Deutsche Industriebank (DE:806330: news, chart, profile) required a similar bailout.

Germany's finance minister, Peer Steinbrueck, was more optimistic, saying there are no signs of the German economy being affected. "I believe those involved have the situation in hand," he said.

Meanwhile, a poll of institutional investors of German economic sentiment fell to its lowest level in a year, according to the ZEW Institute. See Europe markets.