Britain's quarter of a trillion pound exposure to the PIIGS

[OwlHoot]

Sounds horribly familiar

From today's Labourgraph:

Will markets call EU bluff on Greek rescue?

... French banks have $76bn of exposure to Greece, the Swiss $64bn, and the Germans $43bn. But this understates cross-border links. There are large loans between vulnerable states. The exposure of Portuguese banks to Spain and Ireland equals 19pc of Portugal's GDP. Interlocking claims within the eurozone zone are complex. Contagion can spread fast.

Marc Touati, of Global Equities in Paris, said the "haemorrhage of Greece" must be stopped to prevent a domino effect. "We have to move fast, above all to keep Greece in the eurozone. If not, Spain, Portugal, and Italy will be next. It could reach France," he said. ...

Sounds just like the problem in 1914. A linked system of alliances, so that if one country felt threatened or aggrieved then it would mobilize, which threatened the next, and so on ...

[AtW]

Sounds just like the problem in 1914. A linked system of alliances, so that if one country felt threatened or aggrieved then it would mobilize, which threatened the next, and so on ...

Yes, let's have no allies or allianances, that would make things better

For speculators it will!

[Andy2]

from one of the comments

We are completely focused about the insolvent PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain), but what about that other EU/EC albatross further east known as
B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T:
B- Bulgaria
U- Ukraine
L- Latvia
L- Lithuania
S- Slovenia
H- Hungary
I- Italy
T- Turkey