Fire!

More woe on the sovereign debt front.

Belgium had its credit rating downgraded.

After an auction of six month debt, stock markets retreated and the yield on Italy's benchmark 10-year bonds widened further to 7.273pc - a level at which other debt-laden eurozone nations were forced to seek bailouts.

Germany is in the firing line for a downgrade following the failure earlier this week to sell all the bonds on offer.

Hungary, not in the eurozone, has had its debt downgraded to junk status as it seeks help from the IMF and EU.

Fires everywhere.  In the eurozone, the firemen (the ECB) are confined at German insistence to the fire-station.  What started as a small fire  is now raging out of control and will destroy everthing in its path.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/8916930/Standard-and-Poors-downgrades-Belgiums-credit-rating.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/8914720/Italy-10bn-debt-sale-saps-confidence-in-eurozone.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/damianreece/8917007/Why-a-German-downgrade-is-the-next-logical-step-in-the-euro-crisis.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financialcrisis/8914727/Hungarys-debt-slashed-to-junk-Moodys.html