The Irish bailout for both their banks and sovereign government, now officially requested with terms and size being negotiated, was also meant to stop the dreaded word ‘contagion’ that the Greek bailout was supposed to engineer. Thus, while Ireland clearly needed the money, their ‘just say no’ belief over the past few weeks to outside help was overwhelmed by the wishes of Germany, France and others that want to stop any further spreading at all costs. All eyes now turn to Portugal and very nervously to Spain. The issue with Spain however, if it is to be a future problem, is that it’s too big to bail. In terms of senior lenders to Ireland and their banks, they get saved again but most of the holders of sub debt of the banks will take very large hits. In Asia, the Shanghai index was down only slightly after Friday’s hike in their bank reserve requirements but the banks were down 1%+.
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