CHEAT SHEET
TOP 10 RIGHT NOW
Senior U.S. officials are alarmed by the European debt storm as they see more and more American assets being connected to the euro zone. Banking officials say that as the crisis spreads to Italy, spillovers will inevitably occur across the Atlantic, mainly due to holdings of U.S. money-market funds in European securities. Those funds were also responsible for the catastrophic "breaking the buck" during the 2008 financial collapse. Jeffrey Lacker, president of the Richmond Federal Reserve Bank, said: "I'm less confident about the money-market funds and their ability to weather major problems at European institutions."