It's interesting that you're so confident that it's impossible. How were those euro debts held by Ireland reduced by 97%? I'm going to assume you're an expert s

It's interesting that you're so confident that it's impossible. How were those euro debts held by Ireland reduced by 97%? I'm going to assume you're an expert so it should be pretty obvious from the absurd source data they released. https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/31011519/EU%20Debt%20Write%20Off.zip https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/31011519/EU%20Debt%20Wri... My guess is that the largest majority of debt is held by ECB and the banks (e.g by Greece held in Germany) who had their own debts written off (e.g. Landes banks) or held at negative yields for a decade through quantitative easing. The implication of your statements is that a significant portion of bonds are held by individuals, and yet my knowledge of the US market in 2008 would indicate that maybe 10% are held by non-institutional players. Real US rates were negative for years 2009-2014, but maybe the ECB didn't do that, although I remember hearing they had.