When the Irish bailout was first announced, stocks in Europe rallied and the bond market seemed to settle a bit.But that proved to be a temporary phenomenon. Worries over Portugal (and its Iberian neighbor Spain who might tip the whole applecart over if she goes under), as well as continued fears about Greece, Italy, and now Germany who is bankrolling a lot of the debt, have caused some observers to start talking in apocalyptic terms about that might transpire unless there is a turnaround soon: The average yield for 10-year debt from Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy reached 7.57 percent today, a euro- era record. The average premium investors demand to hold those securities instead of German bunds widened to as much as 492 basis points, the highest level of 2010. The average cost of insuring against default by the five nations using credit- default swaps reached a record 517 basis points on Nov. 23."It's no longer taboo to speak about a restructuring," said...(Read Full Post)