The papers are reporting an emergency EU meeting over Greece.  Gordon is attending despite the UK not being in the Euro.  At the end of last week Guido learnt that next week Gordon is scheduled to meet George Papandreou, the socialist Greek prime minister who has led his country to ruin. Perhaps they can compare notes or put in a joint application to the IMF?

Until the recent Irish austerity budget the financial world talked about the risk of the P.I.G.S. (Portugal, Ireland, Greece and Spain) defaulting on their sovereign debt. Now Ireland is controlling government spending with swingeing public sector cuts they are not being talked about so much. Attention has shifted to the S.T.U.P.I.D. countries: Spain, Turkey, UK, Portugual, Italy and Dubai. These are the countries the City now fears to be at risk of sovereign default.

ZeroHedge has created a S.T.U.P.I.D. index, which they are charting, it is a Credit Default Swap index, so bad news means the chart goes up.  For the record, Guido thinks there is no chance of the U.K. defaulting because we still control our own currency, though losing our AAA credit rating and devaluing is a very real possibility.  The market is pricing in the credit risk from Gordon’s economic stupidity nevertheless…