Spain’s 10-year debt cost hits record

Spain’s benchmark borrowing costs climbed to a record Tuesday, raising the specter of sovereign bailouts for the government in Madrid and then Italy that would stretch European Union finances to their limit.

The yield on Spanish 10-year government debt rose for a third day, touching 6.83 percent, the highest since 1997, after Fitch Ratings predicted that Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy will miss budget-deficit targets he’s made the foundation of his economic policy. Italian 10-year yields rose to the highest in almost six months.

The bond rout wiped out the effects of $1.4 trillion in official funding for euro-region banks that has held yields in check since December. Spain’s 10year yield is close to the 7 percent level that forced Greece, Ireland and Portugal to seek bailouts.

Italy, the second-biggest sovereign borrower in the euro area, may need to seek a rescue within months, said James Nix- on, chief European economist at Societe Generale SA in London.

European policymakers face a series of hurdles in the coming days as bond investors spurn the 100 billion-euro rescue package for Spanish banks that the European Central Bank said Monday would bolster financial stability.

Italy is due to sell as much as 9.5 billion euros of bills and bonds at auctions today while auditors are due to report on the extent of Spanish banking losses from next week. a smartphone, “Share Everything” prices are lower than for current plans with unlimited calling and texting, but higher than plans with limited calling and texting.

The plans will push many subscribers toward spending more by including unlimited calling and texting by default. Unlimited calling plans provide peace of mind, but not many people need them, and the average number of minutes used is declining.

From the carrier’s perspective, providing unlimited access is an efficient use of its network, because calling and texting take up very little capacity. Data usage, on the other hand, consumes a lot of network resources.

The savings will come to subscribers who add more devices like tablets to their plans. In such cases, the new pricing system will be cheaper compared with separate data plans for each device. Today, few consumers put tablets on data plans, probably because they dread paying an extra $30 or so per month, on top of their phone bills.

Under “Share Everything,” adding a tablet to a plan will cost $10 per month. Adding a USB data stick for a laptop will cost $20.

Verizon’s limited-calling and texting plans will disappear, except for one $40-per-month