The other shoe drops

In EU Dominos Part 2 I asked: What is the exposure of British banks, in particular the nationalised and semi-nationalised ones, to the Euro debacle? Comes Mervyn King to answer:

While the direct holdings of Irish sovereign debt are not especially large, ownership of securities issued by Irish banks are bigger and of course there are wider exposures to assets comprising loans to the Irish economy more generally. So I think the overall exposure to the Irish economy is by no means trivial.

There are some very delicate discussions going on in Europe as we speak. It’s something which is relevant to concern about financial stability in the U.K., but it’s focused more generally on the Irish economy, then the Irish banking system and only to a relatively small extent direct exposures to Irish sovereign debt.

"By no means trivial", eh? Aaaaargh! Buy gold and stock up on tinned goods!