Contagion, Revisited.


Only months after congratulating itself on a narrow escape, the eurozone is again hurtling back toward contagious defaults. Its fumbling approach to the explosive instability of the Irish banking system leaves little hope that the other ticking bombs with which Europe’s economies are riddled are going to be disarmed in time.

Ireland’s basic problem is that it now has to choose between its own sovereign solvency and the solvency of its banks. Other European countries – in and out of the eurozone – may soon face the same choice. In such a world, keeping banks afloat with public capital risks sinking the sovereign – and with it, the whole banking system.


From the FT.

P.S.: More here.