Ten short days ago, the $125 Spanish bank rescue plan was being hailed, briefly, by rattled European officials as a breakthrough that would stabilize the eurozone’s fourth largest economy. Now yields on Spanish 10 year bonds have passed 7 percent, the “magic number†that forced Greece, Ireland and Portugal to seek national bailouts, and the talk is growing that Spain is going to need another, bigger bailout: of the country, not of the banks. 7 percent is a magic number because when heavily indebted countries have to pay that kind of interest on their debt, a doom spiral sets in: the high interests rates make their debts harder to service and raises the ratio of debt to GDP. That higher risk leads investors to demand even higher interest rates, and that makes the debt even less sustainable, driving interest rates even higher. Repeat until dead.
— The American Interest, Spain: Thanks for the $125 B, Can I Have $625 B More?
Note the chart from yesterday.
Also, since I’m making Sherlock Holmes references, I’ll warn you: we made the mistake of watching Sherlock Holmes: Game of Shadows this weekend. Complete dreck, utterly awful. Made the same mistake with Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. Just as bad.
When exactly did Hollywood decide every movie had to be a Lethal Weapon 3-style action-dramedy? That is, equal parts special effects, scene-chewing, and slapstick. And all awful.
Too bad about Sherlock Holmes. I watched the first one on a rainy Saturday and enjoyed it.
i liked the second one
I greatly enjoyed the 2nd Sherlock Holmes! My wife and kids loved it too. Well, the teenagers. The baby didn’t much care.
Humph. I guess I just take Holmes too seriously. I liked the first Holmes movie. Downey (and, likely, the writers) portrayed him in this one as Brit version of Downey’s Tony Stark — that is to say, as a genius buffoon, and teh ghey jokes were just too…slapstick for my taste. I mean, if Holmes ever were to dress in drag, he’d have actually passed as a woman, y’know? And the whole bit with Holmes on the burro just made me throw up my hands. Cumberbatch has spoiled me, I suppose.