Don't know how to copy charts Click here http://www.businessinsider.com/who-holds-italian-debt-2011-7 From another article than chart The CHART OF THE DAY shows Italy's government debt burden, the euro area's largest at 1.8 trillion euros ($2.6 trillion), dwarfs those of Greece, Ireland and Portugal, which already received bailouts, and Spain, which has the next-highest borrowing costs. German Chancellor Angela Merkel is under pressure from coalition partners to limit its contribution to sovereign bailouts. The European Financial Stability Facility currently has a lending capacity of 250 billion euros. "If Italy gets to the point where its debt auctions start to fail and it loses access to the market, it becomes difficult to imagine who would have the kind of money that would be required to rescue it," said Luca Jellinek, head of European interest-rate strategy at Credit Agricole CIB in London. "It's undoubtedly bigger than the current scope of the EFSF." http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-...crisis-enters-new-phase-chart-of-the-day.html
The PIIGS will drag down the European banks in general, and the ECB in particular. For the life of me I cannot see any situation where throwing borrowed money at a borrowed money problem will be able to solve it. That is what is happening around the world and tackling both sides of the balance sheet is not really a starter with these fools. The printing press is but a temporary 'solution'. OC
Ah . . . il prezzo della bella vita! Wine, crusty bread, cheese and prosciutto, a beautiful woman and a sunny day! True happiness.
