The Lunchtime Rant

17/11/11 -- We've got the builders in, which isn't a euphemism for something else, it also means that the electric has been off for half the morning hence the lack of blog activity.

Things seem to be accelerating as more wheels start to fall off the European debt-laden juggernaut by the day.

Spain's borrowing costs have reached a Euro-era high I see at today's bond auction, falling a fraction shy of hitting the generally accepted as unsustainable rate of 7 percent. At a similar auction just a month ago yields were 5.433 percent and now they are 6.975 percent.

The yield differential between French and German bond yields has also widened to a new record high this morning. Aren't France supposed to be one of the rescuers?

Demonstrations are underway in Italy meanwhile as new PM "Super Mario" Monti tries to push through new austerity measures of his own. Elsewhere the IMF's head of Europe has resigned "for personal reasons" in the midst of the crisis.

The patients are dropping like flies and now the doctors are either going down with the same symptoms or resigning. Oh dear.