Here's what bothers me about this: we get information about exposure to the PIGS (Italy not included) and nobody else. What about exposure to Italy's higher than 100% GDP public debt? How much private sector debt is there on top of that? How about Belgium with its chronic public debt? How about exposure to Germany, the largest economy in the EU and the one with the highest absolute amount of debt (public or private) in the EU? It's okay to go all zOMG! over Spain's €600 billion foreign debt, but what about the debts of other large countries? That which is not talked about doesn't exist, does it?

By laying out pros and cons we risk inducing people to join the debate, and losing control of a process that only we fully understand. - Alan Greenspan