EuroZone politically and constitutionally paralysed. Spain and Portugal will be hung out to dry. International investors in EuroZone sovereign bonds will be forced to take massive losses.

[jose v]

EuroZone politically and constitutionally paralysed. Spain and Portugal will be hung out to dry. International investors in EuroZone sovereign bonds will be forced to take massive losses.
There will be no Eurobond, no increases in the EU’s €440bn rescue fund, and no mass purchases of Spanish and Italian bonds by the European Central Bank. Nothing. The system is politically and constitutionally paralysed. Spain and Portugal will be left nakedly exposed before their funding crunch in January 2010.

Angela Merkel (Germany) and Nicolas Sarkozy (France) have shot down in flames the idea of issuing EuroZone-wide Eurobonds. They will not accept a bundling together of all Europe’s debts into one poison pot to be paid for by all EuroZone members. Brussels will require a future crisis-stricken EuroZone government to force losses on its existing private lenders - including investors in government bonds - before it will provide a bail-out package. And if a EuroZone government gets into trouble later down the line, it will be required to default on its other debts, while continuing to make payments on its EU and IMF rescue loans. More here (12.12.10).