Germany may propose the creation of a euro zone “stability council” to undertake competitiveness checks and impose sanctions on profligate EU states, the Irish Times reported. The proposal, floated yesterday by German economy minister Philipp Roesler, includes plans for debt controls that would be written into state’s constitutions. “We need a new stability pact for Europe” to bring about a “new culture of stability”, said Mr Roesler. “It’s not enough to just open rescue umbrellas,” he told reporters at a news briefing in Berlin.

One of the most common catchphrases in the consulting business is that there are opportunities to be found in every crisis, Spiegel Online reported. The global financial crisis of 2008 indeed provided the German economy with the chance to shine. German businesses enjoyed stronger growth than most rivals once the worst of the crisis was over. Germany emerged as a world champion of the economic rebound. But is the worst truly over? With its downgrading of the United States' top credit rating on Friday, Standard & Poor's triggered fears that we may be facing a double-dip recession.

Former Anglo Irish Bank chief executive David Drumm faced the final round of questions from creditors in Boston yesterday before a final decision on whether he should be discharged from bankruptcy, the Irish Times reported. Public trustee Kathleen Dwyer has set August 31st as the last time objections can be raised to his discharge – which, if granted, would effectively shield him from multiple claims.

The intervention of the European Central Bank this week to buy Italian and Spanish bonds has successfully dragged the two countries’ cost of borrowing to sustainable levels. However the threat posed by contagion in the euro zone’s debt crisis is far from over, with analysts warning yields could rise again to danger levels (generally understood to be 6 per cent rates on 10-year bonds) if the ECB does not continue to buy the debt of both states in the short run before a longer-term solution is agreed, the Irish Times reported.

The crisis intervention measures undertaken by the world's seven leading industrial nations only briefly quieted markets on Monday, Spiegel Online reported. By early afternoon, shares began falling again on European markets, with Germany's blue chip DAX index dropping to an 11-month low. Now investors are awaiting the opening bell on Wall Street, where further negative developments are anticipated. Over the weekend, many in Europe had worried this would be a Black Monday -- and it could still turn out that way.

An Irish academic best known for correctly calling the property crash four years ago has raised fresh concerns over a potential tsunami of debt default from "high rolling" professional classes, the Guardian Irish Business blog reported. Professor Morgan Kelly said there is about €11bn (£9.6bn) tied up in domestic loans that were handed out to lawyers, doctors and estate agents for homes they can no longer afford – loans the banks are not counting as problematic.

Allied Irish Bank Plc chairman David Hodgkinson has proposed a buy-out scheme to help homeowners, who are struggling to meet their mortgage obligations, InsolvencyJournal.ie reported. Speaking at the MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Co. Donegal, Mr. Hodgkinson outlined the plan, which AIB have presented to the Central Bank. Under the scheme, the bank would use capital injected by the government, to buy back the homes of mortgage holders and renting them back to the occupants.

France and Britain are most vulnerable within Europe to a rating review following the U.S. downgrade, with anaemic growth and hefty borrowing placing them among the shakiest of the world's triple-A rated lenders, Reuters reported in an analysis. Both countries have stable rating outlooks, making a sudden downgrade unlikely and markets have been so impressed by Britain's debt-cutting strategy that they have pushed its bond yields to record lows. But a surge in the cost of insuring French debt against default on Monday highlighted alarm sparked by Friday's U.S.

Saab staved off a fresh bankruptcy threat on Friday by finding the money to pay its workers, but its car production lines remained silent and its long-term funding issues unresolved, Reuters reported. Fears over the survival of the 60-year-old firm, rescued from closure early last year, have ebbed and flowed as owner Swedish Automobile chases funding. Its production line has been closed since late April. On Friday the company paid a delayed July salary to its 1,600 whitecollar workers, almost half the workforce. This stopped unions from pursuing a bankruptcy application.

New laws on bankruptcy enacted last week have done little to deter bankruptcy tourism, the Independent reported. Under the old law, bankrupts in Ireland were subjected to at least 12 years of punitive restrictions, and possibly for life and even in death. A bankrupt remained a bankrupt unless discharged by the court. That could only happen if at least a portion of the debt was repaid, along with any costs that may have arisen.