Europe's debt crisis intensifies

Press quote (Business Week)
Simon Tilford
05 February 2010

"The risk of contagion now is very very serious. By the end of next week, if things haven't calmed down or if they have actually intensified further, then it will be a matter of a short while before some steps are being taken," Simon Tilford, chief economist at the Centre for European Reform, said. ...But Tilford said those worries are now swamped by worries of contagion within the euro zone. "We could get into the position where we have a serious crisis in Spain which might not be containable because Spain's a bigger economy," he said. "It's possible for the euro zone to cope with a bailout in Portugal or Greece but Spain would present a problem of a whole different order."