G-20 Nations Decide Not to Help Europe and Their Sovereign Debt Woes

“European leaders shift their focus this week to bolstering the euro region’s debt-crisis firewall after the Group of 20 nations rebuffed their call for help.

The decision by G-20 finance ministers to fend off pleas for assistance pending an increase in the euro-area backstop puts the onus onGermany, the biggest national contributor to bailouts, to overcome its resistance to doing more.

With a parliamentary vote on a second Greek aid package looming in Berlin today, German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government must now decide whether to back plans at a March 1-2 European Union summit to combine rescue funds and produce a potential firewall of 750 billion euros ($1 trillion).

Europe “doesn’t really need any outside money,” Jim O’Neill, chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, said in an e-mail. “It needs their own policy makers, especially Germany, to show leadership.”

Finland votes on the same package on Feb. 29 while the European Central Bank is preparing to issue a second round of unlimited three-year loans to help shore up the region’s banks….”

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