Analysis: Spain bad loan mess revives debate on who should pay

Spain’s plan to rid banks of toxic real estate assets is reviving the politically heated debate over how creditors and taxpayers should share the vast losses

Italy could issue its first 30-year benchmark bond in more than three years in 2013 after successfully selling a new 15-year bond this week, the head of the Debt Management Office said Wednesday. Rome, which has 2 trillion euros of public debt to refinance, shied away from selling longer-dated paper during the worst of the euro zone debt crisis, which pushed yields on its bonds and its borrowing costs higher across the curve.

This article is a guest contribution by Dr Stefan de Vylder*, well-known Swedish economist.The 85 billion euros that were recently mobilised by the IMF, the European Union and various bilateral lenders to save Ireland – or, rather, to save banks and other private investors who have invested in Irish assets – confirms my view of the European Monetary Union (EMU) as a club with the wrong membership and a weak management.

Time to breathe a sigh of relief, with resolution of the Greek bailout? Not so fast. Greece is likely to need re-adjustments to its plan [0] Plenty of challenges remain in the eurozone; PIMCO's El-Erian says Portugal is next [1]. In fact, as Jeffry Frieden and I argue, the resolution of the problems facing eurozone policymakers is likely to be contentious and prolonged.

 The MSM reports Spanish Short-Term Debt Costs Reach Alarm Levels

A Greek default appears likely soon as Greece Dispatches Officials to US Over Default Fears. Greece sent senior officials to Washington on Monday for meetings with the International Monetary Fund as it raced against the clock to break a deadlock in debt swap talks that has raised fears of an unruly default.

Ambrose Evans-Pritchard is back on track with Ireland demands debt relief, warns on EU treatiesThe Irish government has suddenly complicated the picture by requesting debt relief from as a reward for upholding the integrity of the EU financial system after the Lehman crisis, though there is no explicit linkage between the two issues.

Although there is no formal requirement for the Dutch parliament to approve the EFSF bailout deal, members of the prime minister's coalition are having second thoughts about the deal following the Greek referendum proposal.Amusingly, members of the opposition are pleased with the referendum stating a preference for tossing "the whole rescue package into the trash bin".