Left Elbow Hurts Pushing

Western Europe risk as high as in Eastern Europe

In today's FT there is an article on credit default swap (CDS) spreads. A CDS is used to hedge the credit risk of a bond, whose spread is the annual Insurance premium, measured in basis points (0.01%) of the nominal value of the bond.

The graph illustrates how CDS spreads converge Central and Eastern Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Western Europe. The FT argues that this is not merely a sign of Western Europe's debt crisis but also a sign of the shifting of assets in these emerging countries. Investors value today Hungary and Ukraine have a more secure than Ireland or Portugal.