After months of denials and prevarications, the Spanish government has finally done what many economists have been predicted it would have to do for months, and asked for a 100 billion-euro bailout for its sieve-like and utterly corrupt banking system.
I really had hoped that we would be able to avoid talking about peripheral Europe once March's Greek bond payment and orderly default on its debt was out of the way. The focus has of course shifted from Italy to Spain in the past month, as Mariano Rajoy's 100-day honeymoon as Spanish prime minister has come to a rather sudden and painful stop.