The EU people are hopeless bungling fools who seem to think that making laws and agreements can, as if by magic, 'create reality'.

Credit Default Swaps (CDS) allow hedge funds and other actors in the markets to make large amounts of money in the event of a default of an entity that can be a company, or a government. They are a bit like allowing people to take out fire insurance on my house despite the fact that they have nothing to do with me, and don't own my house at all. And, of course, if hundreds of different people have taken out fire insurance on my house, it will hardly be a surprise if one day my house "accidentally" catches fire…Is this why there is so much pressure on the Greeks to either accept totally outrageous levels of austerity, coupled with interest rates for long-term loans that have just reached 25.91%?....How can we find out how much money has been bet on Greek default? Well, you can access data at the DTCC website - the Depository Trust and Clearing Corporation. Have a look at their Table 6 that gives CDS data for the top 1000 Reference Entities. You can even download the whole lot as an excel file. They actually provide details about transactions every week. Amazingly up front, when you think about it. For the week ending 3rd February 2012, the total Gross Notional amount outstanding was $14,862,048,912,869 - roughly $14.8 trillion. You can find the amounts for all 1000 entities, one of which is the "HELLENIC REPUBLIC" for which the value is $69,382,164,345 ($69 billion), based on a total of 4,183 contracts. So, I'm not quite sure how to interpret these numbers, but it looks that there are maybe over 4000 people/hedge funds that are looking forward to cashing in their checks for $69 billion if they could get the Greeks to blink in this very dangerous game of poker that is being played on the world stage…..And who will be paying the $69 billion? Anyone like to guess that the banks that have been taken on the bets will need taxpayers to pick up the bill?

Europe is broke.They all need massive amounts of money to keep functioning at all.
The Europe's fiscal pact is not worth the paper is is written on, because everybody will do what they think is good for them. ---- Threfore the whole thing is a FARCE.
Germany provided some liquidity/1 trillion/ so they think it is all done and settled and reforms due in Spain and Italy meanwhile/NOT/ : I wonder what palnet the Germans live on?
Can anyone remember how many times Chelly and the rest of the Euro-clowns insisted that Iceland was going to join the Euro, was applying to join the Euro, would imminently join the Euro, and on and on....Spain is already planning to breach its budgetary targets, defying European leaders on the day they signed their historic fiscal pact.. Mariano Rajoy, prime minister of Spain, said the budget deficit would be 5.8pc of GDP in 2012 - more than 30pc higher than the 4.4pc target agreed by Brussels. In a move that was heralded in Spain as defiance against the German-led austerity drive, Mr Rajoy said he had decided to set a new target rather than extract €44bn (£36.6bn) from the budget at a time of economic crisis. Mr Rajoy said it was now a "sensible and reasonable" target. "This is a sovereign decision made by Spaniards," he said. It was one of their proudest predictions, and like all Euro-clown predictions, prediction was the point. There didn't need to be a fact, having a prediction was enough. A fact only happens once, but a prediction is a day after day thing....And the message was simple. In a crisis, the Euro will save you....oh yeaaaah...!!!!

Monday 5 March: Euro-zone February services PMI data. Tuesday 6 March: Revised EU fourth-quarter GDP growth data. Wednesday 7 March: German bond auction. Thursday 8 March: Bank of England interest rate decision. European Central Bank interest rate decision and press conference. German January industrial production data. Last day for banks to sign up in Greek PSI offer. Friday 9 March: Euro-zone finance ministers may hold conference call to sign off on Greek bailout. Monday 12 March: Euro-zone finance ministers meet. Greece aims to complete PSI by this date. Tuesday 13 March: German March ZEW economic sentiment indicator. Italian and Greek T-bill auctions. International Monetary Fund board likely to discuss participation in Greek bailout. Tuesday 20 March: EUR14.4 billion of Greek government bonds mature. Spanish and Greek T-bill auctions. Euro-zone finance ministers expected to hold talks on the region's bailout funds.