trefoil, answer one question. who will ultimately pay for this interest and never ending debt? santa claus or perhaps the banks board of directors out of their private pockets? nah, maybe the greeks will pay with their ouzo and toilet paper...
Oh please, stop. That has nothing to do with what I just posted. Also, if you knew anything about the markets, you'd know that the market is telling you in no uncertain terms that they don't expect Greece to pay this money back. If you really think they will, with ouzo, toilet paper, or anything else, feel free to buy the freakin' bond. Let me know how it turns out.
China is buying Italian bonds. Now, assuming China is buying Italian bonds, that should stop the contagion and everything ends if / when Greece folds.
I don't see it as worthwhile for at least the time being to even contemplate any of the PIIGS exiting from the Euro. The ECB can purchase an endlessly large pile of PIIGS debt if need be, just as the Fed can of U.S. debt. The real problem would arise if the Euro got too far out of whack relative to the dollar, and right now the ECB could print Euros until there wasn't a tree left standing on the entire European continent without that happening, because the US is in the same sorry boat with the bilge pump running full blast. It was not a happy boat while the EU was trying to row in a different direction, but now that they are being forced to row in the same direction everything is copasetic. I'm kinda looking forward to a nice long European vacation in a year or two with the Euro and Dollar at parity.
And getting worse!! CDS Spreads out to 7234... up nearly 53% Thankfully our ECB neighbors are such kind-hearted folk and we can take solace in the fact that soc-gen won't be allowed to be Lehman-Europe
The breaking news now is : European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said the body would soon present options for the introduction of common euro zone bonds as part of a solution to the euro zone's debt crisis . http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/09/14/markets-bonds-euro-idUSL5E7KE0FN20110914 would this fix the greece / italy / spain crisis?
The direction is: a TEFLON/hardcore European finance minister or debt manager! If you want to put it in German wording "A Hans Tietmeyer" or Helmut Schlesinger would do the thing. By the way: Hans Tietmeyer is still Vice President of BIS in Basel ;=)
Introducing options for EUBonds/EBonds/WTF? No. IMO they will not be implemented. I don't think Germany is quite ready to don those chains. However, German politics confuses the snot out of me so I could easily be wrong. If they really went ahead and did this and seemed absolutely, resolutely committed. . .well, it would be tough to say. If they kept the Bad Nations in the EU but didn't consolidate to a single, real government. . . dude, there's no way. There's no way the Greeks are going to live cheek-to-cheek with the Germans and everyone gets along. Still. One can see an open stretch of road just ripe for can kicking if they could EUBond together. Solve it? Nope. Send it down the road? There is potential.