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The article focuses on difficulties with creating of American-style capital markets and entrepreneurship in Europe. It talks about startup companies in several European Union cities and money raised by European venture-capital funds and compares it to their American counterparts. It mentions that the American corporate-bond market is three times larger than Europe's and comments that European companies rely heavily on banks which have curbed lending since the global financial crisis.

The article discusses the finances of the international banking industry, focusing on large banks in Europe. A loss of liquidity by banks in Europe caused by fears among financiers that the banks will suffer large losses on their holdings of euro area countries' public debts is examined. An increase in the spreads of credit default swaps on corporate bonds of large U.S. banks is discussed.

The article reports on problems faced by corporate-bond investors in Europe. Compared with government bonds, corporate bonds fared badly in 1999, and this year they have done worse. Corporate-bond investors' most recent problems started in Britain. The government has been running a surplus, and is therefore issuing fewer bonds. Due to this, longer-dated bonds yield has become a lot less than shorter-dated ones.