Merkel looks to have been ‘browbeaten’ into agreeing a $1 trillion (672 billion pound) weekend deal to save the euro

OBAMA PUSHED MERKEL

Debt Aid Package for Europe Took Nudge From Washington

PARIS — President Obama had just flown into Hampton, Va., Sunday morning to deliver a commencement address. But before he donned his silky academic robes, he was on the phone with Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, offering urgent advice — and some not so subtle prodding — that Europe needed to try something big.

Merkel's caution in euro crisis weakens Germany in EU

BERLIN (Reuters) - Angela Merkel has exposed her shortcomings as a crisis manager in the last few weeks and her growing weakness both at home and in Europe could undermine her efforts to impose the economic reforms Germany wants in the EU. The German chancellor, whose reputation has mutated from the bloc's most skilled deal-broker to "Madame Non" in a matter of months, looks to have been browbeaten into agreeing a $1 trillion (672 billion pound) weekend deal to save the euro, the biggest burden of which falls on Germany.