Rome / Bloomberg Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi has compared Europe’s recent economic policies to administering drugs to artificially prolong the life of a terminally ill patient. A regular critic of the European Union’s budget deficit rules, Renzi said in an open letter published by La Repubblica on Thursday that austerity economics had resulted in Europe being left behind by ...

Bloomberg Norway’s biggest political party says the country’s giant wealth fund needs to rethink its proposed entry into the $20 trillion infrastructure market. “With what we’re seeing now with economic developments globally, and the short-term cost of that for Norway, it’s time to put the brakes on,” said Torstein Tvedt Solberg, a Labor Party politician who sits on the parliamentary ...

Paris / AFP Jean-Marc Ayrault, who resigned as French prime minister two years ago to take the blame for a sputtering economy, has been rewarded for his loyalty to embattled President Francois Hollande with the foreign affairs portfolio. Seen as a safe pair of hands but with little diplomatic experience — or charisma —the understated Ayrault, 66, will be expected ...