French banks, burdened with all manner of Italian debt, could totter.

Not so fast - no one wants to touch the Italian debt yet.

Italian debt and deficit for instance has not changed in 20 years.

Italian debt has always been high even before the financial crisis.

The financial markets clearly agree - with the yield on 10-year Italian debt hovering around 7.17% today.

Short-term Italian debt is now trading above 8pc, deep into bail-out territory.

In the same time interval, the Italian public debt has always been pretty much the same, give or take a few percentage points.

Italian debt is at record levels, and Spain faces an early election tomorrow.

However there are large problems ahead - including a massive amount of Italian debt to be sold.

Italian debt has also strengthened, pushing its 10-year yields below the 7% mark (trading around 6.7% this afternoon).