Luxembourg's Prime Minister Jean-Claude Junker is defending the newly released budget bill, in place for 2013. The bill set in place plans to invest more money into the consolidation package, in place to consolidate Luxembourg's budget. A 1.8% increase in government spending, in relation to the budget set in 2012, is put forth to remove any divergence from the country's stability and growth. Juncker stressed that although the recent financial crisis which has caused a recession in Luxembourg over the past 4 years, the bill will insure that Luxembourg's deficit will be lower in 2013 than 2009. Juncker says that in 2013, Luxembourg's deficit will be at 4.3%.  Juncker says the reason Luxembourg has come into deficit is the investment of 200 million Euros into Luxembourg's employment fund. Furthermore, the increase of unemployment isn't beneficial to the countries current financial situation.  He does not plan to raise VAT, as some countries in the EU such as the Netherlands have recently done to fill part of their deficit. This would only harm economic recovery and affect the country's low-income earners.  Juncker's ultimate goal is to make Luxembourg debt free by 2014. The minister promised that the government would try their very best to achieve this goal, while still being aware that the economic development of Luxembourg remains "extremely fragile".

It's a rare sight, seeing US banks taking precautions instead of relying on the federal government for a bail out. This though is the precise case at the moment. Seeing as it still isn't clear whether or not Greece is staying in the Eurozone, US banks such as Meryll Lynch and JPMorgan are taking necessary precautions to insure that should Greece retreat from the Eurozone, the banks wouldn't be hit as hard. In a recent survery, sent out by a private advisory firm, 80 percent of the answers predicted that Greeve is going to leave the Eurozone, and a fifth of the given 80% believe that more countries may follow Greece's potential lead.