Hit the Eject Button

As the Top of the Bailout Pops continues I will provide a useful summary of the single currency crisis so far:

Bailout received:

Portugal €78 billion

Italy N/A (yet)

Ireland € 77 billion

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Another Day, Another War

I don’t profess to know more than the real basics about this topic but why are the Euro zone countries declaring war on ratings agencies?  Just because they cannot manipulate private companies to do what they dictate, the Euro countries have decided to ‘clamp down’ on ratings agencies as some of them declared Greece to be in default in all but name and that Portugal’s bonds are like junk.

Eurovision Debt Contest

What is going on in Euro zone, another country joins the downgrade top of the pops every week. Today Germany’s cost of borrowing increased, Italy yesterday, Spain last week and we’ve been reading about the Greek and Irish crises for some time now.  Without wanting to seem like a card carrying Tory, why are we legally obliged to help these countries in their bailout when we have enough of our own financial problems to deal and we do not use the Euro? 

Finding Madeleine

Kate McCann launched a book today to help raise funds for their continuous search for Madeleine. This story still makes me very sad, my little niece was 2 when Madeleine disappeared and I remember not wanting to let her out of my sight even in the garden.

Also today, the McCanns published an open letter in a newspaper addressed to David Cameron pleading for his intervention in Madeleine’s case (he has). The Portuguese authorities closed the case after 14 months