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Euro Rescue, Finance Jitters

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A global stare-down on debt. Will Europe’s trillion dollar rescue package be enough to stave off a sovereign debt crisis? Plus, Fed Chair Ben Bernanke's speech to 2010 grads.

Traders shout orders in the S&P 500 futures pit at the CME Group in Chicago near the close of trading, Thursday, May 6, 2010, the day the Dow Jones industrials plunged nearly 1,000 points in half an hour. (AP)
Traders shout orders in the S&P 500 futures pit at the CME Group in Chicago near the close of trading, Thursday, May 6, 2010, the day the Dow Jones industrials plunged nearly 1,000 points in half an hour. (AP)

A trillion-dollar rescue package for Europe’s stumbling economies this last weekend. Shock and awe, Euro-style.

A high-finance “Euro-TARP” to bail out Greece and give cover to Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Italy.

Markets celebrated the massive intervention on Monday, after days of high jitters and that 1000-point swoon on the Dow.

But the questions are not gone. Not about debt levels and European banking. Not about high-speed computer trading that can spin markets and turn 401Ks into road kill.

This Hour, On Point: World markets and the trillion dollar question in Europe. Plus, we listen as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke speaks to the 2010 graduates.Guests:

Roben Farzad, senior writer for Bloomberg BusinessWeek. His April 29 article  in BusinessWeek is "Why Small Investors are Shying from Stocks."

Kenneth Rogoff, professor of economics and public policy at Harvard University. He was chief economist and director of research at the International Monetary Fund from 2001 to 2003. His new book is "This Time is Different: Eight Centuries of Financial Folly"

Wolfgang Munchau, Brussels-based associate editor and European commentator of the Financial Times, and co-founder and president of Eurointelligence.com.

Closing segment:

We listen back as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke tells young graduates at the University of South Carolina why they need to look beyond a big income to find happiness. Here's the full transcript. And watch the video.

This program aired on May 11, 2010.

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