Picture du Jour: Sovereign debt in a global context

By Prieur du Plessis, on May 12th, 2010 posted in: Economy

With most of the attention during the past few weeks focused on the Greek debt situation, other sovereign borrowers have started wondering whether they might be next.

The chart below, courtesy of Agora Financial’s 5 Min Forecast, places the Greek malaise in a global context. The other PIIGS countries obviously feature prominently, but the US’s three-year funding requirements are on par with the likes of Spain and Portugal.

Any long-term bulls on the US dollar and long-dated Treasuries?

Source: Agora Financial’s 5 Min Forecast, May 12, 2010.

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Read more on Investing in Greece at Wikinvest

Paul Hanly

May 15, 2010 at 1:16 pm

The big difference is that the US government can issue its own currency – “print” money to spend without borrowing – and the others can’t. Heaven help their citizens as those countries will be forced to reschedule/default and into internal recession unless they abandon the Euro. The rest of Europe simply won’t fund the amounts required.