This is an excerpt from Executive Insight Briefing, produced every Thursday by the National Journal’s Daily Briefings Team.

Washington is keeping a close eye on economic tribulations in the eurozone this week, with President Obama talking with leaders in Germany, France, and Italy and increasing the pressure to resolve the crisis.

World leaders are set to meet at the Group of 20 summit June 18 and 19, to be held in Mexico, which could provide a forum for solutions. The summit comes one day after Greeks return to the polls on June 17.

It may not matter whether Greece chooses the pro-bailout party, committed to policies of austerity imposed as a condition of bailout money, or the anti-austerity party, which has expressed a willingness to resist those policies, which have dampened economic growth there. Either choice could precipitate a Greek loan default or exit from the eurozone, which could spread panic across the continent, causing lenders to tighten their coffers, European stocks to drop, and European Union economies to further contract, according to the BBC.

Greece is also not the only country in the E.U. that remains a threat to the region’s prosperity. Sluggish growth in Spain prompted a drop in the Spanish stock markets on Wednesday and new offers of aid from the European Commission, Reuters reports.

The situation in Europe could influence the U.S. election this fall –an election that will likely hinge on the health of the U.S. economy – if the crisis spreads to the U.S., harming what most experts say is an extremely fragile economic recovery.

Read the complete May 31, 2012, edition of Executive Insight Briefing.