As the EU economic crisis spirals ever downward, corporations are in fact looking increasingly like people, blaming the continent's troubles for their plummeting earnings, reports the Wall Street Journal. And with increasing austerity programs kicking in across Europe in 2013, analysts think money is just getting tighter. "We are in a vicious circle," says an economist at a leading Spanish bank.
"The ongoing European crisis presents the biggest risk to our economy," said Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner yesterday. And with the EU accounting for one-fifth of all American exports, the belt-tightening in Europe is hurting many American corporations. Both Ford and Apple, for example, have blamed Europe for their poor recent results. "I don't see the light at the end of the tunnel," says the CEO of a Swedish truck maker. (More European Union stories.)