Will Irish stress tests and Portugal's downgrading mean fresh sovereign debt problems?

Paul Brain and Howard Cunningham Managers, Newton's fixed income team There is nothing fresh about the problems in the eurozone. The two-speed Europe is not a new phenomenon, just that the roles have been reversed: when the single currency and single interest rate was introduced the German BMW was still towing a Trabant (post unification), while abiding by the speed limit, but the PIGS weak economies were artificially turbo-boosted by low rates. The German economy spent several years shedding its Trabant and increasing productivity. Meanwhile the PIGS turbo blew up to reveal the un...