European Debt Crisis Hits Spain

There will be no bulls running in Spain any time soon.

The contagion that is the European debt crisis has officially spread to Spain. Europe’s fourth largest economy fell $600 million short of its goal in a bond auction yesterday despite bonds that are paying out at the highest rate since the country joined the euro over 10 years ago.

The lack of interest precipitated more fears – a word that has been synonymous with the euro zone lately – that the debt crisis is worsening. It also nudged Spain closer to becoming the next Greece or Italy.

The European Central Bank swopped in today and bought up some Spanish and Italian bond yields in an effort to stop the bleeding. That eased Spanish bond rates by 0.03 percent to 6.41 percent. Still, that Spain needed the help was a bad sign.

The Washington Post detailed what Spain’s financial struggles mean for investors here in the U.S., and where the debt crisis might spread next. Meanwhile, Michael Steininger of the Christian Science Monitor asks whether the European Central Bank’s intervention today was “too little, too late.”