German Chancellor Angela Merkel said investors are trying to “blackmail” governments into helping debt-strapped European countries, underscoring the need for all euro-area governments to reduce debt. “After the states bailed out the banks, the financial markets are again trying to blackmail states and tell them, ‘You’ve made so much debt,’” Merkel said today at a rally of her Christian Democratic Union in the eastern city of Brandenburg, about 50 kilometers (30 miles) from Berlin. The solution is to press “countries that are highly indebted to really do their homework and get their debt down,” she said. “A Europe ... (full story)