Economics: Number of the Week: Euro Zone Debt Is Coming Due

Throughout the recession and recovery, many European banks have sought to sweep their problems under the carpet in the hopes that they could solve them in a better and more profitable future. Now, though, they’re running out of time.

As investors fret about European banks’ exposures to Greece and other financially troubled countries, those banks’ borrowing costs are rising sharply. That wouldn’t be a problem if they didn’t need to borrow, but as it happens they need to borrow quite a lot: This year and next, some $1.7 trillion in euro-area bank debt will come due, far more than among banks in the U.S., the U.K. or elsewhere.

For more, see Number of the Week: Euro Zone Debt Is Coming Due by Mark Whitehouse, July 10, 2010, at The Wall Street Journal.