Hungary's government braced for a possible recession in 2009 and Poland's approved a timetable to adopt the euro on Tuesday as ex-communist Europe struggled to contain the spread of the financial crisis.
The head of the IMF urged lawmakers in Kiev to quickly pass legislation to underpin a $16.5 billion rescue package and other governments across the region scrambled to rework their budgets and take other steps to ward off economic collapse.
The Fund also said it was not in talks with Romania -- a country whose debt was cut to "junk" status on Monday -- but said its external environment, or its ability to borrow cash to fuel its economy, was "very difficult." The financial crisis has come as a shock to most countries in Central and eastern Europe, a region of states ranging from those still struggling with fundamental economic problems to those fully integrated in the European Union and euro zone.
Once seen by economists as insulated due to its low exposure to toxic debt, the region shuddered this month as foreign investors dumped assets and fled to developed markets in a selloff that has hammered currency, debt and stock markets.
This is CNBC using the term "economic collapse."
We are lulled into thinking this mess is on its way to being fixed.
Hardly.
The original plan didn't work. Plan 9 isn't working, either.
I still believe only Luigi Zingales has the right solution.
But by the time his plan is finally adopted (I think its adoption is inevitable), even that will fall under the category of Too Little, Too Late.
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