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The U.N. nuclear agency is including two senior weapons experts on its next mission to Tehran in an unusually clear statement on the team’s prime focus _ wresting information from Iranian officials about suspicions the country has secretly worked on atomic arms.

Iran has flatly refused to discuss such allegations for more than three years, saying they were based on phony intelligence from the U.S. and others seeking to harm the Islamic Republic.

But diplomats on Friday told The Associated Press that the weapons experts were part of the U.N team and that Iran had accepted their inclusion after some initial resistance. That suggested that the Islamic Republic was being more conciliatory on the issue of secret weapons work than usual as the International Atomic Energy Agency mission prepares to fly from Vienna to Tehran Saturday.

All six diplomats interviewed said Tehran had not committed to discussing the issue. But three of them added that Iranian officials indicated openness to talking about all topics during the IAEA mission that ends early next week _ a departure from standard reluctance by Tehran to exclude give-and-take on the arms allegations.

None of the diplomats expressed confidence of a breakthrough. But the Iranian stance at least allows the mission to have some home of making a dent into Iran’s wall of silence about its alleged clandestine nuclear weapons work.

Any progress on the issue would be significant.

Tehran has blocked IAEA attempts for more than three years to follow up on U.S. and other intelligence alleging covert Iranian work on nuclear arms, dismissing the charges as baseless and insisting all its nuclear activities were peaceful and under IAEA purview.

Faced with Iranian stonewalling, the IAEA summarized its body of information in November, in a 13-page document drawing on 1,000 pages of intelligence. It stated then for the first time that some of the alleged experiments can have no other purpose than developing nuclear weapons.

Iran continues to deny the charges and no change in its position is expected during the Tehran talks with IAEA officials. But even a decision to enter a discussion over the allegations would be a major departure from outright refusal to talk about them.

The diplomats said that the IAEA team was looking for permission to talk to key Iranian scientists suspected of weapons work, inspect documents relating to such suspected work and get commitments for future visits to sites linked to such allegations.

As most often the case, the IAEA team is headed by Herman Nackaerts, the chief agency official in charge of the Iran file _ but the makeup of the rest of the team reflects the importance attached by the agency to the trip.

Two diplomats said Friday that nuclear weapons experts Jack Baute of France and Neville Whiting of Britain would accompany Nackaerts.

While both fulfill IAEA functions not directly related to nuclear arms research, they were connected to their nation’s weapons programs before they came to the agency.

One of the diplomats _ who is familiar with the thinking that went into setting up the mission _ said their inclusion was meant to send a clear signal to the Iranians. He, like the five other diplomats, asked for anonymity in exchange for discussing privileged information,

Also on the team is Rafael Grossi, IAEA chief Yukiya Amano’s right hand _ another indication of the importance the agency has attached to the trip.

The three-day visit comes as anxiety grows daily about Iran’s nuclear capacities _ and what it plans to do with them.

Since the discovery in 2002 that Iran was secretly working on uranium enrichment, the nation has expanded that operation to the point where it has thousands of centrifuges churning out enriched material _ the potential source of both nuclear fuel and fissile warhead material.

Iran says it is enriching only to generate energy. But it has also started producing uranium at a higher level than its main stockpile _ a move that would jump start the creation of highly enriched, weapons grade uranium, should it chose to go that route. And it is moving its higher-enriched operation into an underground bunker that it says is safe from attack.

Israel in particular is concerned by Iran’s expanding enrichment capacities _ and increasing evidence of secret nuclear weapons work.

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak said Friday the world must quickly stop Iran from reaching the point where even a “surgical” military strike could not block it from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Amid fears that Israel is nearing a decision to attack Iran’s nuclear program, Barak said tougher international sanctions are needed against Tehran’s oil and banks so that “we all will know early enough whether the Iranians are ready to give up their nuclear weapons program.”

The United Nations has imposed four rounds of sanctions against Iran, but veto-wielding Russia and China say they see no need for additional punitive measures. That has left the U.S. and the European Union to try to pressure other countries to follow their lead and impose even tougher sanctions.

“We are determined to prevent Iran from turning nuclear,” Barak told reporters during the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum.

“It seems to us to be urgent, because the Iranians are deliberately drifting into what we call an immunity zone where practically no surgical operation could block them,” he said, alluding to increased Iranian efforts to move their enrichment work deep underground.

Separately at Davos, U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon urged a resumption of dialogue between Western powers and Iran on the nuclear issue. He said Friday that Tehran must comply with Security Council resolutions and prove conclusively that its nuclear program is not directed at making arms.

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George Jahn can be reached at http://twitter.com/georgejahn

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European Union Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn said authorities are

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Turkey stands by its forecast of 4 percent growth this year, Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan said, dismissing International Monetary Fund projections that the economy may barely expand.

The global environment is uncertain and there are major decisions to be taken in developed nations in the next four or five weeks that could change the outlook completely, Babacan said in a televised interview from Davos today. The IMF is

A multiple sclerosis drug made by industry giant Novartis is under investigation after at least 11 patients taking the medicine died.

The drug, Gilenya, was licensed last year in the European Union to treat patients with a severe type of multiple sclerosis.

The deaths raise concerns Gilenya could trigger heart problems after patients take their first dose, according to a statement issued Friday by the European Medicines Agency. The agency, which is now investigating the drug, said it isn’t clear if it caused the deaths.

One of the deaths was in the U.S., where a patient died within 24 hours of taking the first dose.

The European agency said it didn’t know where the other 10 deaths occurred, but that they were reported to its drug database, which monitors side effects from medicines in the European Union.

A spokeswoman at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration said it also is conducting a data analysis but has not made any definitive conclusions and does not know when its review will be complete.

More than 30,000 patients have taken Gilenya worldwide payday loan. The European Medicines Agency advised doctors to increase their monitoring of patients after the first dose of the medicine. The agency said the risk of a slow heart rate after the first dose of Gilenya was known when it was approved.

Novartis AG said it was advising doctors of new recommendations on using Gilenya. They had previously recommended all patients be monitored for six hours after their first dose, but are now tightening that to include continuous heart monitoring using electrocardiograms and measuring blood pressure and heart rate every hour. In certain patients, that monitoring should be extended, the drug maker said in a statement.

This new guidance applies only to patients taking their first dose, Novartis said in a statement.

The EU drug regulator hopes to finish its review of the drug by March.

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China

China will roll out measures to boost consumption this year as it strives to meet challenges posed by a global slowdown, Commerce Minister Chen Deming said.

The government is studying policies to encourage spending on energy-saving products, and will take other measures including the promotion of online shopping and tourism, Chen told the ministry

American bought more cars and trucks last year, spurred by easier credit, an improved economy and a desire to replace the aging vehicles that got them through the Great Recession.

Sales rose sharply for Detroit’s three carmakers and for Japan’s Nissan in 2011, aided by a surge in November and December. Analysts expect that momentum to continue into 2012.

Low interest rates, looser credit standards and pent-up demand are driving demand. The average age of a car on U.S. roads is the oldest ever, closing in on 11 years. Americans want to trade in those older vehicles now that a tentative recovery has begun and they’re feeling a little more secure about jobs and finances.

Buyers also were drawn out by an array of high-quality small cars with nice, roomy interiors and more features than in the past. That made it easier to downsize from bigger cars amid high gas prices. Pickups also sold well as business began to replace the trucks they need to haul equipment.

Those trends were good for the industry, which needs sales to keep growing after a scary drop in 2009. Healthy sales are also good for the economy, which benefits from jobs created by carmakers and spending by buyers.

After final figures are tallied late Wednesday, U.S. auto sales should rise to around 12.7 million for 2011. That’s a 10 percent jump from 2010 and 22 percent from 2009, when the U.S. auto industry and the financial system were in peril. Sales are almost certain to rise again in 2012, perhaps as high as 13.8 million, marking the third straight year of growth.

“Over the course of the fourth quarter of 2011, clear signs emerged that U.S. consumers are more confident and that other underpinnings of our economy are either stable or slowly improving,” said Don Johnson, GM’s U.S. sales chief.

Chrysler led the 2011 sales gains with a 26 percent increase, followed by Nissan at 15 percent, GM at 13 percent and Ford at 11 percent, the companies reported Wednesday.

For December, Chrysler sales surged 37 percent from a year earlier on strong demand for the Jeep Wrangler and the Chrysler 200 sedan. GM was up 5 percent for the month, aided by the Chevrolet Cruze compact and pickup sales. Ford sales rose 10 percent, led by the new Explorer SUV. Nissan sales rose nearly 8 percent for December.

Chrysler Group LLC’s strong showing for December capped a remarkable turnaround under its new Italian ownership. And it’s expected to jump ahead of Honda as the No. 4 U.S. automaker in 2011.

Chrysler and GM nearly ran out of cash in 2009 and needed government help and a trip through bankruptcy protection to survive.

Chrysler, now majority owned by Fiat SpA, sold 1.37 million vehicles last year, about 284,000 more than in 2010. It has introduced 16 new or revamped models in the past two years, vehicles that have fueled its recovery.

Sergio Marchionne, CEO of Chrysler and Fiat SpA, is predicting a net profit for 2011 of $600 million.

“Over the past 12 months, we successfully changed the conversation from Chrysler’s survival to products and service that consumers expect and want from a great American automaker,” Marchionne said in an e-mail to employees.

Nissan sold just over one million cars and trucks last year, its best calendar year ever. The company said it sold 944,000 Nissans and more than 98,000 of its Infiniti luxury cars and SUVs. Previously, 2007 had been the company’s best year.

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Egypt’s ruling military and the revolutionaries who demand they immediately step down battled for a third day in the streets on Sunday _ and competed fiercely for the support of a broader public that has grown tired of turmoil since the fall of Hosni Mubarak 10 months ago.

The generals appear to be winning the fight for the public, despite a heavy-handed crackdown on protesters around Cairo’s Tahrir Square using a roughness that rivals even that of Mubarak’s widely hated police force.

The protesters have tried to drum up Egyptians’ anger at the military by spreading videos and photos of military police savagely beating young men and women to the ground with sticks and truncheons _ and the resonant scene of a woman in a conservative headscarf being stripped half naked by soldiers who stomp on her chest.

But so far their efforts to win public sympathy don’t seem to be gaining traction in the face of the military’s campaign to depict the crowds of hundreds in the streets as hooligans and vandals, not the idealistic activists who succeeded in bringing down Mubarak. At least 10 protesters have been killed and 441 others wounded in the three days of violence, according to the Health Ministry.

“The military has failed in everything except for its stunning success in making people hate the revolution, its history and its revolutionaries,” prominent columnist Ibrahim Eissa wrote in an editorial in the independent pro-revolution newspaper, Al-Tahrir.

Led by a general who served for 20 years as Mubarak’s defense minister, the military has been methodically seeking to discredit the revolutionaries, accusing them of illegally receiving foreign funds and being part of a plot hatched abroad to destabilize Egypt. The generals have in the meantime sought to portray themselves as key players in the 18-day revolt that toppled Mubarak’s 29-year rule and hence have earned the right to rule.

In a statement posted on its Facebook page, the ruling military council on Sunday called the clashes part of a “conspiracy” against Egypt. It said its forces had the right to defend the “property of the great people of Egypt.”

Seeking to depict the protesters as hooligans _ and apparently to counter the widely published images of protesters being beaten or dragged on the ground _ it also posted on the page footage of young men throwing rocks at a basement window of the parliament building and of at least one man trying to set the place ablaze.

The generals’ campaign plays on Egyptians’ frustration with continued instability and economic woes since Mubarak’s fall. Many are now more focused on the multistage parliamentary elections that began last month and continue through March. Islamist parties have so far overwhelmingly dominated the vote, with liberals and secular parties far behind.

That trend continued with the announcement Sunday of results from the second of three rounds of voting, held last week. Out of around 160 seats up for grabs in the second round, the Muslim Brotherhood won 29 and another more conservative Islamic party, Al-Nour, won 23. Two liberal groups _ the Wafd Party and the Egyptian Bloc _ won nine and seven seats, respectively. The rest will be determined in a run-off vote to be held later this week.

The Islamists have been staying clear of the recent violence, fearing that they could jeopardize their electoral gains by taking part in the protests. Their stance has prompted many activists to accuse them of political opportunism.

The military has meanwhile been using the state media and sympathetic private TV stations to market an image of itself as the protector of the nation, filling its statements with patriotic rhetoric and grave warnings if turmoil persists.

The revolutionaries who led the protests against Mubarak accuse the military of mismanaging the transition since then, of seeking to hold on to power and of using the same autocratic ways as the ousted leader. They demand that the military hand over power to civilians immediately _ and some have begun demanding that presidential elections scheduled for the middle of next year be moved up to January to pick a civilian head of state to take the generals’ place.

“The military is looking down at us and handling everything from a security perspective,” said Shady el-Ghazali Harb, a prominent activist and an icon of the anti-Mubarak uprising. “It is trying to make the point that its way of handling things is what will be applied and nothing else.”

The latest deadly clashes began Friday, when one of several hundred peaceful protesters staging a sit-in outside the Cabinet offices near parliament was detained and beaten by troops. The protesters began their sit-in three weeks ago to demand that the military immediately step down.

In Sunday’s clashes, protesters and troops battled on two main streets off Tahrir Square, trading volleys of stones and firebombs around barriers that the military set up to block the two central avenues. The army also used water canons.

One of the streets is site of a research center set up during the three-year occupation of Egypt by France in the late 18th century. The building was almost completely gutted by a fire which broke out during the height of the clashes on Saturday, when troops on its roof and on other nearby rooftops hurled rocks down on protesters below.

Protesters, who blame the fire on the troops, have been trying to salvage valuable books and documents from the center, whose two-story building is now in danger of collapsing after its roof caved in.

Activists have flooded social network sites and sympathetic media with photos and video from the troops’ brutal assaults the past two days.

The photo of the woman protester half-stripped by soldiers ran on the front page of the Al-Tahrir newspaper, emblazoned with a headline in red, “Liars,” referring to repeated denials by the military council and military-appointed Prime Minister Kamal el-Ganzouri that no force or live ammunition were used against the protesters.

The presenter of a political talk show on a private TV station sarcastically praised the soldiers for their bravery in wrestling the woman down.

“She is more of a man than 300,000 men put together, including me,” said Youssef al-Hussein on ONTV.

Other widely circulating footage show an army officer firing a pistol at protesters _ though it is not clear whether he was using live ammunition _ and soldiers dragging women by the hair and ferociously beating, kicking and stomping on protesters cowering on the ground.

Still, many Egyptians complain the revolutionaries have gone too far and that, almost a year after ousting Mubarak, they should now go home and let the military run the country or wait for the next parliament to decide the country’s future.

Such sentiments are not surprising given that the military has been the most powerful institution in Egypt since army officers seized power in a 1952 coup that toppled the monarchy.

Nearly 60 years later, the military continues to have the last word on policies, a position of power that has left many activists not entirely certain that the generals who succeeded Mubarak would voluntarily return to their barracks.

“The military council uses every opportunity to show itself as the land’s strongest institution,” said Mohammed Abbas, an activist who defected from the Muslim Brotherhood to side with youth groups more active in protests. “We are making it easier for the generals by our divisions and isolation.”

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The ousted chief of Olympus, the Japanese camera-maker under investigation for hiding investment losses for years, is confident about making a comeback _ a return he vows will clean up the company’s scandal-tainted management for good.

Michael Woodford, the former President and Chief Executive at Olympus Corp., said Thursday he was lining up investor support and talking to other “influential people in the Japanese establishment” for his return to the company.

Woodford, in town this week for such meetings, declined to give specifics, saying the discussions were “delicate.” But he was clearly upbeat about the prospects, noting he had enough support to call a general shareholders’ meeting _ a key move for managerial change.

“I wouldn’t be doing this. I wouldn’t be putting myself through this enormous physical and emotional effort if I didn’t think it could be successful,” he told The Associated Press, weary but flushed from the bustle of reading email from Olympus employees cheering him on.

“This is uncharted territory. You have the world looking at this story,” he said at a Tokyo hotel.

The deception at Olympus, dating back to the 1990s, to hide 117.7 billion yen ($1.5 billion) in investment losses became known only when Woodford blew the whistle. He questioned exorbitant fees for advice on the acquisition of British medical equipment maker Gyrus Group and other expensive acquisitions in 2008.

Woodford recalled that he thought the Gyrus purchase was unwise and unneeded at the time, but said he never dreamed it involved anything illegal.

Woodford, a 51-year-old Briton and a rare foreigner to lead a major Japanese company, was fired in October after confronting Olympus directors.

Woodford is demanding the resignation of the entire board, including President Shuichi Takayama, who replaced him and initially declared all the spending as legitimate in a news conference.

“It’s offensive to common sense,” said Woodford.

The battle over who will lead the camera and medical equipment maker and its 40,000 employees could come to a head at the next shareholders’ meeting. Takayama said Thursday that might be held in March or April.

Olympus met its deadline to avoid being removed from the Tokyo Stock Exchange by filing corrected earnings for the April-September first half and for the past five fiscal years on Wednesday.

But it is still under a criminal investigation, and could be delisted later on.

Olympus appointed three outsiders to a new reform committee Thursday to beef up governance and present a plan to shareholders. The committee is in addition to an earlier panel announced by Takayama, which is investigating the scandal.

The Olympus fiasco has prompted soul-searching in Japan Inc. on living up to global standards. Ruling and opposition legislators met with Woodford earlier this week to hear his ideas about governance.

The company’s loss of 32.3 billion yen ($414 million) for the first half of the fiscal year, through September, a reversal from a 3.8 billion yen profit the same period a year earlier, was mainly from the economic downturn and losses from Thai flooding, Takayama said.

“Capital adequacy ratio is a big problem, and we are considering how we can overcome it,” Takayama told reporters. “We are considering various options, including a capital tie-up and operational or sales tie-ups.”

Woodford said he was opposed to alliances, which he said would likely compromise Olympus’ independence, and he had better ways to get capital to shore up its hobbled balance sheet.

“Because of the strong cash flows and profitability of the medical business, we could raise funding from additional sources without losing our sovereignty,” he said.

Olympus should focus on core businesses _ medicine, microscopes, industrial products and cameras and other consumer products _ and stop acquiring unrelated companies, such as pet food, plastic plates and cosmetics, he said.

He promised a more transparent Olympus, with more outside board members. He said he was preparing the candidates already.

Olympus stock, which plunged after the scandal hit, has recouped some of the losses but dropped 21 percent to close at 1,041 yen Thursday.

A third-party panel set up by Olympus, including a former Japanese Supreme Court judge, released the findings of an investigation earlier this month, which said top executives who were “rotten to the core” had orchestrated the accounting cover-up spanning three decades.

The fees for financial advice and overvalued acquisitions were part of an elaborate deception utilizing overseas banks and several funds to keep the massive losses off the company’s books, according to Olympus. Japanese magazine Facta was first to report the dubious money.

It is still unclear if Woodford will manage a comeback.

Some people, such as former board member Koji Miyata, see him as a hero and have begun an online campaign to bring back Woodford.

Miyata says Woodford, a 30-year employee at Olympus, was groomed from the start to lead the company.

“There are a lot of senior managers who might be good for the No. 2 post, but someone who is destined to be No. 1 is totally different,” he said in a recent interview with The AP.

“He has principle. He is uncompromising,” he said of Woodford, whom he has known for 25 years. “He isn’t swayed. He doesn’t avoid confrontation. He sticks to his guns that what is wrong is simply wrong.”

Woodford, who sees himself as a “salaryman,” denied it was his nationality that might make him Olympus’ savior.

“I’m sure there are some Japanese people who could do similarly to me,” he said. “I know the company. I’ve worked there. It doesn’t matter if I’m English or Japanese, in that sense.”

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Working almost to exhaustion and persuading countries one by one, European leaders agreed Friday to redefine their continent _ hoping that by joining their fiscal fortunes they might stop a crippling debt crisis, save the euro currency and prevent worldwide economic chaos.

Only one country said no: Britain. It will risk isolation while the rest of the continent plots its future.

The coalition came together in a marathon negotiating session among the 27 European Union heads of government _ hard bargaining that began with dinner Thursday evening and ended after 4 a.m., when red-eyed officials appeared before weary journalists to explain their proposed treaty.

It was a major step forward in the long, postwar march toward European integration. It was two decades ago, on Dec. 9 and 10, 1991, that European negotiators drafted a treaty in Maastricht, Netherlands, to unite their politics, create a central bank and, one day, invent a common currency.

The agreement _ with 23 countries in favor and three more saying they are open to the idea _ would force countries to submit their budgets for central review and limit the deficits they can run.

A crisis over sovereign debt that consumed Greece and spread to Ireland, Italy, Portugal and Spain threatened to explode into a worldwide financial crisis capable for forcing the global economy into recession.

“This is the breakthrough to the stability union,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said. “We are using the crisis as an opportunity for a renewal.”

To prevent excessive deficits, countries in the treaty will have to submit their national budgets to the European Commission, the executive body of the EU, which will have the power to send them back for revision.

They must also bring their budgets close to balance. Except in special circumstances, the budget deficit of a country must not exceed 0.5 percent of gross domestic product, the amount of goods and services produced by its economy. An unspecified “automatic correction mechanism” would punish the rule-breakers.

Germany and France insist that fiscal union is the best way to regain market trust, badly shaken by the escalating financial crisis. Most economists think it will not be enough.

They say the euro countries need to have enough money on hand to guarantee everyone can pay their debts. Euro leaders put off until March a decision on whether to provide money on top of a euro500 billion, or $668 billion, bailout fund for euro countries.

European leaders did agree to add euro200 billion to the International Monetary Fund to help ailing countries.

Only 17 of the 27 European Union countries use the euro currency, and its stability has been threatened by the massive national debts of some of those 17. All but two of the non-euro countries _ Britain and Denmark _ are committed to adopting it eventually.

The countries that use the euro found they had friends among those that do not. At least six and as many as nine non-euro countries are willing to bind themselves to the euro countries in a pact aimed at having their economies converge.

Britain said no for two reasons: Prime Minister David Cameron’s Conservative Party includes a strong anti-EU element, and Cameron, despite trying deep into the night, failed to win an exemption from regulation for the British financial industry.

The other leaders would have none of it: Bankers and lack of regulation are viewed on the continent as a prime cause of the financial crisis.

“What was on offer is not in Britain’s interest, so I didn’t agree to it,” Cameron said. “We’re not in the euro, and I’m glad we’re not in the euro. We’re never going to join the euro, and we’re never going to give up this kind of sovereignty that these countries are having to give up.”

Britain, which prides itself on its fierce independence, joined the then-European Economic Community in 1973 _ only after French President Charles de Gaulle, who had vetoed the U.K.’s membership along with Germany’s leader, fell from power.

Since then, it has retained a frosty skepticism toward the ambitions of France and Germany to forge ever closer political and fiscal ties. It eschewed both the euro single currency and the Schengen open borders policy, fearful of losing power to determine its own fate.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy blamed the British leader for scuttling what could have been an EU-wide treaty. He said Cameron’s exemptions for British finance “seemed to us unacceptable.”

Some countries may face parliamentary opposition to the pact, which would allow for unprecedented oversight of national budgets.

Stocks and the euro climbed on the news of the treaty, even though it offers only a long-term solution and leaves many details to be worked out. Stocks rose 3.4 percent in Italy, 2.5 percent in France and almost 2 percent in Germany. In New York, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 1.5 percent and vaulted back over 12,000.

Borrowing costs for European countries fell, but only slightly, a sign of cautious confidence from the bond market. The yield on the benchmark Italian government bond fell to 6.33 percent, down about 0.05 percentage point. A yield above 7 percent is considered unsustainable.

One by one through the long night, the leaders of the 17 euro nations persuaded the non-euro nations to come along.

Hungary, the Czech Republic and Sweden said they would need to consult their parliaments. The six other EU countries that use currencies other than the euro _ Denmark, Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, Latvia, Lithuania _ agreed right away. The leaders want the treaty written by March.

The countries hope to help European nations tame their long-term debt. Such an agreement is considered necessary before the European Central Bank and other institutions commit more money to lower the borrowing costs of heavily indebted countries like Italy and Spain.

How exactly that will happen remains unclear. Financial markets around the world had hoped the ECB would buy massive amounts of national bonds, flooding the market with money and lowering borrowing costs. But ECB President Mario Draghi dashed those hopes Thursday and said there was no plan to buy more bonds.

On Friday, Draghi called the treaty agreement “a very good outcome for the euro area, very good.

“It is going to be the basis for much more disciplined economic policy for euro-area members,” he said. “And certainly it is going to be helpful in the present situation.”

A breakup of the euro would have disastrous consequences. It would almost certainly trigger a financial crisis while banks figured out who owned what and while countries leaving the union awkwardly transitioned back to their own sovereign currencies.

Such a disorderly exit could cause banks to become fearful and stop lending money to each other. In 2008, a credit crisis followed the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers investment house and triggered a meltdown in the stock market.

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