OH, REALLY?

Spain on Thursday raised euro3.52 billion ($4.47 billion) in an auction of 10-year bonds that analysts deemed encouraging amid concerns about the country's debt load.

The Finance Ministry said bids totaled euro7.16 billion, more than double treasury expectations. It also said it was happy with the sale although the interest rate of 4.07 percent was up from 3.86 percent in the last auction in March.

"The auction results were reassuring," said Unicredit analyst Chiara Cremonesi in a statement.

If only it hadn't been raised after discrete phone calls from the government to Spanish banks to pitch in, buy bonds, and then pass them to the ECB for purchase... (link in Spanish)