Brad Plumer tries to drum up interest in Spain's extremely important and extremely boring bond yields, which hit 7 percent today. Why the bond numbers matter:
The fact that it has to pay so much to borrow money means its debts will keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger. Which means it might not matter if Spain’s borrowing costs are at 7 percent or 77 percent. All of those levels appear to be “unsustainable.” At a certain point, no one’s going to want to lend Spain any more money. The government will then either need a direct bailout from the rest of Europe — that’s what happened to Greece, Portugal, and Ireland when their borrowing costs soared too high — or else it will have to leave the euro altogether. The latter might mean global economic calamity.
Drum is waiting to see whether all hell will break lose:
Europe's come-to-Jesus moment is now looking terrifyingly imminent. Hopefully, Angela Merkel's tough talk is aimed mainly at the Greeks, who hold another round of elections this weekend, and will soften up next week. If not, who knows? The clock is very definitely ticking away.
The Dish 