Greece is also the canary in the coal mine for the euro zone, where all the PIIGS economies (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, and Spain) suffer from the twin problems of public-debt sustainability and external-debt sustainability. Euro accession and bull-market “convergence trades” pushed bond yields in these countries toward the level of German bunds, with the ensuing credit boom supporting excessive consumption growth.
希腊是欧元区的报警器，所谓的“欧猪五国”（ PIIGS—— 葡萄牙、意大利、爱尔兰、希腊和西班牙）全都面临公债和外债可持续性的挑战。加入欧元区和牛市收敛交易（ convergence trade ，利用息差收敛趋势套利的交易 —— 译者）把这些国家的债券收益推高到德国债券的水平，从而催生了信贷繁荣，支持了这些国家的消费过度增长。