A fantastic graphic by Nelson SD. Schwartz at the New York Times:
- If the PIIGS default, their inter-dependent obligations between the PIIGS countries total 369 billion dollars.
- Spain holds 1/3rd of Portugals liabilities. Obviously a bailout is good for Spain.
- From the above graphic: Britain owns $418 billion of PIIGS debt, Germany $686 billion and France a whopping $929 billion. Obviously the biggest beneficiary is France, which can’t understand why it should lose nearly a trillion dollars, nearly Germany and Britain added up. Though honestly $511 billion is just exposure to Italy. Britain is too confused right now about who’s going to rule it. Germany’s pissed off, but when you stand to lose $686 billion you get slightly less pissed off.
- The point the article makes is – and I think I agree – a default will trigger serious problems in the other Euro states. Greece will hurt Portugal, which will hurt Spain, and then it gets reeely bad from there.
- The bailout isn’t really a PIIGS bailout, when you see the above numbers. Who’s really getting saved?