BRUSSELS, Belgium - May 31, 2010 - Václav Klaus, president of the Czech Republic, has never been too worried about upsetting his European Union partners. He risks doing so again with a piece just written for the libertarian Cato Institute’s Center for Global Liberty & Prosperity, provocatively entitled, “When Will the Euro Zone Collapse?”

His main conclusions are twofold.

First, the euro zone has failed: It hasn’t delivered growth and the economies of member states have not converged. According to European Central Bank, average annual economic growth in the euro-zone countries was 3.4% in the 1970s, 2.4% in the 1980s and 2.2% in the 1990s. In the decade of the euro, from 2001 to 2009, it was just 1.1%.

“As a project that promised to be of considerable economic benefit to its members,” he says, “the euro zone has failed.”

ATEHNS, Greece - May 30, 2010 - The Greek government has been advised by British economists to leave the euro and default on its €300 billion (£255 billion) debt to save its economy.

The Centre for Economics and Business Research (CEBR), a London-based consultancy, has warned Greek ministers they will be unable to escape their debt trap without devaluing their own currency to boost exports. The only way this can happen is if Greece returns to its own currency.

Greek politicians have played down the prospect of abandoning the euro, which could lead to the break-up of the single currency.

Speaking from Athens yesterday, Doug McWilliams, chief executive of the CEBR, said, “Leaving the euro would mean the new currency will fall by a minimum of 15%. But as the national debt is valued in euros, this would raise the debt from its current level of 120% of GDP to 140% overnight.

WASHINGTON - May 27, 2010 - The economic rebound last quarter turned out to be slower than first thought, one of the reasons unemployment is likely to stay high this year.

The economy grew at a 3% annual rate from January to March, the Commerce Department said Thursday. That was slightly weaker than an initial estimate of 3.2 percent a month ago. The new reading, based on more complete information, also fell short of economists' forecast for stronger growth of 3.4%.

The reasons for the small downgrade: consumers spent less than first estimated. The same goes for business spending on equipment and software. And, the nation's trade deficit was a bigger drag on economic activity.

WASHINGTON - May 27, 2010 - The number of newly laid off workers filing claims for unemployment benefits dropped last week but the level still remained higher than expected, indicating only modest improvements in the job market.

Applications for unemployment benefits fell by 14,000 to 460,000 last week, the Labor Department reported Thursday. Analysts had expected the level would fall further to 455,000.

Economists say they will feel confident about sustainable job creation once weekly first-time claims dip below 425,000.

The latest decline came after claims had risen by a revised 28,000 in the previous week, the largest gain in three months.

HARRISBURG, Pennsylvania - May 26, 2010 - The possibility of a bankruptcy filing by the city of Harrisburg, Pennsylvvania, the state capital, looms large these days - and it could be the first in a series, say some Wall Street traders.

Harrisburg, population 55,000, owes nearly $70 million in debt payments this year, and it's unclear where that money will come from.

Harrisburg now has one of the lowest credit ratings of any municipality in the United States.

Harrisburg Mayor Linda Thompson told CNBC Wednesday that she had assembled a group of bond stakeholders, the city council and other interested parties to work out the crisis "so that we don't become the poster child of the world in terms of bankruptcy."

NEW YORK - May 26, 2010 - The U.S. national debt has passed the $13 trillion mark, according to USDebtClock.org, an independent website that tracks the real-time growth of U.S. revenues and spending.

On Tuesday, the national debt stood at $12,995,779,490,444.52, according to the Treasury Department's national debt-tracking website TreasuryDirect.gov.

The Treasury Department did not immediately return a request from ABC News for comment.

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard

LONDON, England - May 26, 2010 - The M3 money supply in the United States is contracting at an accelerating rate that now matches the average decline seen from 1929 to 1933, despite near zero interest rates and the biggest fiscal blitz in history.

The M3 figures - which include broad range of bank accounts and are tracked by British and European monetarists for warning signals about the direction of the U.S. economy a year or so in advance - began shrinking last summer. The pace has since quickened.