The rise in funding costs reflects growing political and fiscal tensions in France, as well as Germany’s increased borrowing requirements. Although Spanish debt is showing greater relative resilience, the writer maintains that “to believe this resilience amounts to an island of immunity would be an exercise in dangerous blindness”. Reported by Sergio MensaqueThe European sovereign debt market is undergoing a period of profound upheaval, breaking through technical barriers that seemed consigned to the past. This rise in borrowing costs acts as a poison that permeates the entire economy, choking off credit for households and businesses. Whether we like to admit it or not, market discipline acts as a relentless pendulum that always exacts the price for excess.