Jean-Claude Trichet defends buying bonds to halt European debt
crisis  European Central Bank president says threat of market
collapse in the eurozone is the 'worst since the second world
war' Jean-Claude Trichet Jean-Claude Trichet, president of the
European Central Bank, answers questions about the European debt
crisis on 4 August. Photograph: Ralph Orlowski/Reuters  The
president of the European Central Bank, Jean-Claude Trichet,
vigorously defended his controversial decision to buy up Italian
and Spanish bonds, saying the European debt crisis held the
potential for the worst market collapse for almost a century.
"It is the worst crisis since the second world war and it could
have been the worst crisis since the first world war if leaders
hadn't taken the important decisions," Trichet said in an
interview with the French radio station Europe1 on Tuesday.  As
the borrowing costs of the latest countries to be caught up in
Europe's debt crisis fell for a second day running, Trichet
implicitly confirmed that t