Mr. Prince made several untimely comments, a series of bad personnel decisions, and the recent losses raised questions about his attention to risk.
The Federal Office for Unification-Related soldial Tasks sold, closed or revamped some 30,000 businesses and produced more than $120 billion in losses, raising the anger of taxpayers.
The combination of deficits and exposure to bank losses raised doubts about Ireland's long-run solvency, reflected in a rising risk premium on Irish debt and warnings about possible downgrades from ratings agencies.
In France, where a lone trader at Société Générale is under investigation for running up huge losses, raising question about its controls, the bank's board and the French business elite rallied around the chief executive, Daniel Bouton.
While that decrease actually reflected the more ominous trend of unemployed workers dropping out of the labor force, the headline decline in the unemployment rate and payroll job losses raised expectations that the economy was turning around.
Mr. Curry, whose remarks largely echo testimony he delivered before the Senate this month, added that trading losses raised "questions about the adequacy and rigor of" the bank's "risk-management practices".
In the never-ending drama that is Opel, that would be the latest in more than a decade of losses, raising the question of whether G.M. has a realistic chance of ever turning the business around.
Its predecessor, the Women's United Soccer Association, folded in 2003 after three years and about $100 million in losses, raising questions about the viability of a women's professional soccer league in the United States.
