Um . . . waiting for Draghi. In vain.

The Spanish ten year has crossed 7 percent again.

Open Europe takes up the story:

Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti and his Spanish counterpart Mariano Rajoy would have done well not to choke on their working lunch in Madrid while listening to ECB President Mario Draghi’s press conference. In fact, in spite of last week’s remarks that the ECB would do “whatever it takes” to save the euro, Draghi has today effectively said that the ECB is not going to do anything at all – at least for the moment.

Full details here.

This raises the question of why Draghi said what he did last week. He’s smart enough to know that those comments would set the markets up for disappointment in the event that nothing significant was announced today. If he was hoping to pressure the Germans (who would have known the same thing) into giving their assent to some new scheme which they would end up (largely) underwriting, he clearly miscalculated.

On we go.