If eurozone nations cannot borrow separately, perhaps they can borrow together. That is the logic behind the common debt issuance idea – eurozone bonds – being mooted by the European Commission. Those in favour could cite Wednesday’s other, more scary development – investors turning their backs on a German bond issue – to bolster the case that more liquid collective debt would help to trump countries’ individual difficulties. It is the very crisis the region is trying to fight, however, that makes the joint bond concept look like whimsy.
如果歐元區國家無法單獨借貸,或許它們能共同借貸。這正是歐盟委員會(EC)提出發行共同債務(即歐元區債券)這一主張背後的邏輯。這一主張的擁躉可能會引用週三又一起更令人擔憂的事件——德國債券發行遭投資者冷遇——來支持自己的觀點,即流動性更強的共同債務,將有助於戰勝歐元區成員國各自的困難。然而,正是該地區竭力克服的這場危機,使得共同債券的想法顯得很不靠譜。