Slovakia approved Europe's enhanced bailout fund, making it the last of the 17 members of the Euro Zone to get on board with the $600 billion bailout fund. Bloomberg reports that "Lawmakers voted 114 to 30 with three abstentions to support the European Financial Stability Facility in the second attempt this week after parliament failed to approve the measures on Oct. 11."  The AP has more on the bargaining chip officials used: "The main opposition party, Smer-Social Democracy, then agreed to help the outgoing coalition approve the expanded fund in a second vote in exchange for early elections."  There was a wave of panic after Slovakia's parliament rejected the fund on Tuesday, but, crisis isn't averted just yet. Lutz Karpowitz, an analyst at Commerzbank AG in Frankfurt, wrote Bloomberg saying, "The EFSF would still be too small to support countries like Italy or Spain should the necessity arise."

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Alexander Abad-Santos