成人论坛

Europe's leaders must have hoped that they would have a quiet Christmas this year.

The deal agreed at the European summit in Brussels earlier this month was supposed to cement a consensus for better fiscal discipline and reassure the financial markets about the European Union's resolve.

Unfortunately the markets remain unconvinced, the great and growing fear now is that the sovereign debt crisis will precipitate a banking crisis.

But how could that happen when the European Central Bank has promised unlimited support for Europe's banks?

The 成人论坛's Business Editor Robert Peston explains.

So, how likely is that scenario to play out?

Justin Rowlatt asks Michael Symonds, Credit Analyst at Daiwa Capital Markets.

The architects of the Euro did not write in any legal provision for a country to leave the eurozone.

So how might a break-up occur?

There only a couple of historic examples of currency unions. The Austro-Hungarian empire is one of them.

The empire consisted of independent countries with separate governments and parliaments but with a single currency - the Crown.

The currency union broke up in 1918 after the first World War.

Dr Michael Pammer is a Professor at the Institute for Social and Economic History in Linz Austria.

And finally, Business Daily explores a rarely discussed area of conflict in the workplace - the conflict between generations.

Is the person you report to older or younger than you? And if they're younger, is that a problem?

Our regular commentator Lucy Kellaway of the Financial Times has been poring over recent research that suggests it is, and which - surprise, surprise - she disagrees with.

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