The familiar cause was the freezing up in 2008 of the global banking system, which caused the European economy to contract. As states struggled to fill these fiscal holes, public debt once again took the place of private debt as states bailed out and recapitalized their banks (in some cases) at the same time as their automatic stabilizers kicked in to undergird their economies (tax receipts fell while transfers went up in all cases). Already debt-loaded sovereigns that hadn't looked risky before—for instance, Italy's debt-to-GDP ratio was over 100 percent in 2001 and no one seemed to mind—suddenly looked much riskier as their growth slowed and as a consequence their bond yields shot up.

Mark Blyth, Austerity, loc. 150