Additional Reporting by Andy Bruce and polling by Rahul Karunakar and Sumanta Dey. As Europe’s crisis drags on, the prospect of a Japanese-style lost decade of economic malaise is becoming increasingly real, according to a new poll. Half of the bond strategists and economists surveyed by Reuters are now expecting just such an outcome. Many market participants have dismissed the fall of two-year German bond yields below their Japanese counterparts as being merely a result of a crisis-fueled flight to quality bid. Two-year German yields are now close to zero, offering returns of only 0.02 percent. By contrast, equivalent Japanese bonds are yielding 0.11 percent. But a significant portion of analysts in a Reuters poll see something more sinister in the rapid narrowing of the ... Continue reading →

By Patricia Zengerle WASHINGTON | Fri May 25, 2012 12:54am BST WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Most Americans, no matter what their political party, believe there is too much money in politics and reject the idea that people should be allowed to spend what they want, a Reuters/Ipsos poll showed on Thursday. Seventy-five percent of Americans feel there is too much money in politics, and only 25 percent feel there is an intrinsic right to unfettered election spending, an argument commonly used by opponents of controls on campaign finance.Almost the same proportion - 76 percent - feel that the amount of money in elections has given rich people more influence than other Americans, the online survey found."What we're essentially seeing is Americans are fed up with the ... Continue reading →

LONDON | Thu May 24, 2012 4:13pm BST LONDON (Reuters) - Voters from Germany to Greece would vote to keep the euro if their countries held a referendum tomorrow, according to a poll centred on the key national players in the euro zone debt crisis. Six out of 10 voters who expressed a preference from Greece, Germany, France, Italy and Spain said they would opt to keep their countries in the euro, Thursday's Ipsos poll found, with the same proportion in favour of holding such a referendum.Popular support for the common European currency was strongest in Greece, which is edging precipitously close to the euro zone exits. Three-quarters of decided voters there said they would back the euro.But in Germany and Italy a far slimmer ... Continue reading →

By Koh Gui Qing BEIJING | Wed May 23, 2012 3:38am BST BEIJING (Reuters) - The World Bank cut its economic growth forecast for China this year to 8.2 percent on Wednesday and urged the country to rely on easier fiscal policy that boosts consumption rather than state investment to lift activity. In a biannual East Asia and Pacific economic update, the World Bank said a slowing China will drag growth in emerging East Asia to two-year lows this year, but warned Europe's seething debt crisis could inflict even bigger damage if it worsens.Sluggish U.S. and European demand and a softening Chinese property market would combine to weigh on the Chinese economy in the near term, it said.But if governments and central banks act in ... Continue reading →

By Luke Baker BRUSSELS | Wed May 23, 2012 7:22am BST BRUSSELS (Reuters) - European leaders will explore ways of breathing life into their stricken economies at a summit on Wednesday, but the issue of euro-zone bonds and whether they can help alleviate two years of debt turmoil will dominate the meeting. Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy of Spain, where the economy and banking system are at the frontline of the crisis, will meet newly elected French President Francois Hollande in Paris ahead of the evening summit to discuss policy positions - a marked shift away from the traditional Franco-German axis.At nearly all previous summits over the past two years, Hollande's predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy met German Chancellor Angela Merkel beforehand to fix a strategy, prompting criticism ... Continue reading →

By Dina Kyriakidou and Karolina Tagaris ATHENS | Tue May 22, 2012 3:06am EDT ATHENS (Reuters) - In a land of ancient myths, modern Greeks have created some of their own about their near-bankrupt country's future as an integral part of a Europe that will never kick them out. Solemn warnings from abroad that Athens cannot stay in the euro while rejecting the terms attached to the billions offered to pull Greece out of its financial hole are widely disbelieved in a land that considers itself the envy of foreigners.However bad their prospects, many Greeks seem to think that since money to bail them out was found in the past, it will be found again, whatever politicians say.Nor do they believe that Europe will simply ... Continue reading →