I know everyone’s focused on Greece, but today’s big story really is Spain. For the first time, the interest rate on its ten-year bonds went over the magic number, 7%. That’s the point at which Greece, Ireland, and Portugal had to get bailouts. Spain’s economy is bigger than those three combined, so bailing out Spain would be a huge deal.
Italy’s interest rate went over 6% today. Bailing out Italy, whose economy is bigger than Spain’s, would probably be impossible. Italy is the third largest economy in Europe, after Germany and France.
So I have a better credit rating than most of Europe, with fixed interest rates of 2.99-4.99% on credit cards.
I don’t have much of an economics background, but this is very scary.
It is very scary — and very bad for Obama. It’s actually more about psychology than economics now. It’s about panic and doing too little too late to staunch it. Spain had a housing bubble, but they don’t have the daunting structural weaknesses of Greece. Spain actually makes stuff!