To quantify the now weekly concerns with European sovereign credit and the exposure the European banking system has to it, here is the amount of certain sovereign debt that matures by year end that must be rolled over and thus doesn’t account for new debt that will be added on top of it: Italy, 208b euros, Spain 68b euros, Portugal 12b euros, Ireland 4.5b euros, France 215b euros, and Germany 255b euros. Also competing for investor capital, the UK needs to rollover 89b pounds and the US $2 trillion. Greece of course is covered with their maturities for the next few years due to the bailout plan implemented for them. I bring this up to highlight the weekly focus we must have on European bond auctions. Next week, Belgium, Netherlands, France, Austria, Germany, Portugal, and Spain will issue paper. The concern is that all this supply crowds out the need of the private sector and why its imperative that sovereign debt is cut.
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