Geithner: US has ‘huge stake’ in Euro crisis

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has warned of the risk that the Greek debt crisis poses to markets © AFP Nicholas Kamm

AFP

WASHINGTON (AFP) – US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Monday that America had a huge stake in helping Europe find a “more effective strategy” to tackle its financial crisis.

Geithner, just back from a trip to Poland in which he reportedly expressed concern of a “catastrophic risk” to markets from the Greek debt crisis, said at the White House that Europe had the will to combat its challenges.

“We have a huge stake as a country in helping them deal with those challenges. We have a huge economic stake, financial stake.

“So we are working very closely with them and being very supportive and as they try to craft a more effective strategy.

“Is there political will there? I believe there is.”

Geithner warned last week in a closed address to bankers meeting in Poland that deepening divisions in the eurozone over the Greek debt crisis posed a “catastrophic risk,” Dow Jones Newswires reported.

“What’s very damaging is not just seeing the divisiveness in the debate over strategy in Europe but the ongoing conflict between countries and the central bank,” he said, warning that “governments and central banks need to take out the catastrophic risk to markets.”

Geithner said that Europe must do more to “definitively remove the threat of runs, run dynamics, the threat of cascading defaults or loose talk about dismantling the institutions of the euro.”

He spoke after attending the opening of talks between eurozone finance ministers, which ended up with leaders putting back until next month a decision on new aid for Greece.

© AFP — Published at Activist Post with license

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