How will Europe finance the EFSF

Last week MF Global declared bankruptcy because of its massive bet on European debt (among other things). This morning Jefferies announced that it had cut its European debt exposure by 50% (after last week's massive stock price movement).

Bottom line for North American money managers European debt instruments are toxic waste that can destroy your company. How will the European finance their massive EFSF fund (they need close to a Euro 1,000 billion in borrowings). Already last week a planned bond auction was scaled back (size and term) and another one was cancelled outright. BTW the first auction raised only Euro 5 billion -- not exactly on fire.

As the Economist stated in last week's issue: although the idea behind the EFSF is good, the structure is too complex and too clever!

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