The black/ shadow economy may be worth as much as €2trn in Europe, ranging from 10% of gross domestic product (GDP) in the United Kingdom, to 14% in Ireland and up to 40% in some Central and Eastern European countries, Finfacts reported. Despite terms such as clandestine, black, shadow, underground, or hidden, an informal economy can have some positive features. In Spain, the ease of doing business is ranked by the World Bank at 133rd, behind Kenya. So informal systems to circumvent a stifling bureaucracy can be welcome.

Political crises in Greece and Italy have ebbed, but the euro zone's work is far from done. Those countries' financial troubles remain, of course, as does fundamental discord among euro-zone countries over the scope of their shared commitment and great uncertainty about their ability to create a stronger bailout fund to combat the debt crisis's spread, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Diplomatic deadlock is curbing China's will to provide cash to help end the euro zone crisis after Europe spurned the simplest of Beijing's three key demands, two independent sources have told Reuters. China had offered help in return for European support to grant it either more influence at the International Monetary Fund, market economy status in the World Trade Organization, or the lifting of a European arms embargo, said the sources, both of whom have direct knowledge of the matter, including one who has ties to the leadership in Beijing.

Technocrat leaders in Italy and Greece rushing to form governments will face a critical test of their ability to limit the damage from the euro zone debt crisis when financial markets open on Monday, Reuters reported. Italy's president asked former European Commissioner Mario Monti on Sunday to form a government to restore market confidence in an economy whose debt burden is too big for the euro bloc to bail out.

Italy spends almost a third of its annual budget on pensions and as a ratio of gross domestic product (GDP), the spending is the highest in the world. Not even 37% of the 55-64 age cohort are gainfully employed, Finfacts reported. If Ireland extended the same pension benefits that are available to its politicians and the rest of the public service, to the rest of the citizenry, the costs would be similar to Italy's. Ireland's annual pension costs of €7.5bn amount to over 15% of total annual revenues and 5% of GDP.

Sean Quinn, once one of Ireland's richest business leaders, voluntarily applied for bankruptcy in the Belfast High Court Friday, marking one of the most spectacular business failures amid the country's property and banking crash, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. But Dublin-based Anglo Irish Bank Corp.---the nationalized lender now renamed the Irish Bank Resolution Corp.---said it will question the right of Quinn, its largest debtor, to have applied for bankruptcy in Northern Ireland because he is resident in the Irish republic.

Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s pledge to resign failed to quell a growing investor panic Wednesday over indebted Italy’s ability to pass austerity measures and pay its bills, sending the nation’s borrowing rate soaring to levels that could force the world’s eighth-largest economy to seek international help, The Washington Post reported. The negativity spread to global markets, as Italian borrowing rates surged above 7 percent and stock markets in Milan, Paris, Frankfurt and New York dropped markedly.

U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron will Thursday announce a new deal with HSBC Holdings PLC and Royal Bank of Scotland Group PLC to lend £95 million to small and midsize British companies that are struggling to get normal bank loans, The Wall Street Journal reported. The deal is designed to stimulate employment and boost the U.K.'s flagging economy, with the government saying it will create 4,000 jobs and unlock around £500 million of new investment by small and medium-sized companies.

Dexia SA, the Belgian-French bank navigating a government-orchestrated dismantling, Wednesday booked a EUR4.1 billion ($5.6 billion) loss on the sale of its Belgian subsidiary and a EUR2.3 billion loss on its holdings of Greek sovereign debt, Dow Jones Daily Bankruptcy Review reported. Dexia didn't report third-quarter earnings because of the break-up, which will see the bank's public finance business sold to French savings banks and other businesses sold off once buyers are found.

The three major banks in the State rebuffed the Government’s efforts to get them to lower interest rates during a “tense” and “frosty” meeting yesterday with the Taoiseach Enda Kenny and the Coalition’s most senior Ministers, the Irish Times reported. Senior executives from Bank of Ireland, AIB and Ulster Bank faced down pressure from the Government to pass on the recent reduction in the European Central Bank’s interest rates to variable rate mortgage customers.