i, 14 January 2011
Portugal spent €1.5 billion on its own treasury bonds last month, writes i. The Lisbon daily explains this was to “promote secondary market liquidity”, through a special fund which clears public debt using money from privatisations. In the current year, €1.1 billion in public debts were sold to China, with a higher-than-market interest rate. “When trying to win over new clients, one offers better conditions”, a market analyst told i anonymously. Portugal’s public debt in 2010 totalled €151.7 billion, excluding the debt of local councils, the governments of Madeira and Azores and other state agencies.
The leader of Greece’s leftist alliance SYRIZA is the new bright hope of Greek politics. Steering a course between pragmatism and the rhetoric of class warfare, he has unsettled Berlin, and not just those who back Angela Merkel's austerity policies. 
Europe’s economic woes have forced us to try to understand the secret Olympian world of global finance. But now that we pay more attention to bond yields and stability mechanisms, isn’t it clear that the experts up on their lofty peaks don’t know what’s going on either? 
This year’s Eurovision Song Contest is hosted by Azerbaijan, a country that is far from being a model democracy. An Estonian journalist takes a critical look at the deferential treatment enjoyed by the regime in Baku.