WERE it not for several remarkable feats of civil engineering, the City of Angels would still be a sleepy town on the banks of a small, meandering river in southern California.

如果不是因为几个重大的土木工程，洛杉矶可能还是加利福利亚南部的某蜿蜒小河沿岸的一座沉睡的小镇。

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A Greek default would threaten many Banks, not just in Greece: this week the markets took aim at French Banks that hold southern European debt.

单单一个希腊的违约就会威胁到很多银行，不仅仅是希腊的：本周市场将矛头指向的了法国的银行，而他们手中持有南欧国家的债务。

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France's fragility now directly affects the euro crisis. It has the biggest debt and deficit ratios among the euro zone's AAA-rated countries, and its Banks are dangerously exposed to southern Europe.

法国脆弱的金融状况直接影响着欧元区债务危机，在欧元区信誉等级为3a的国家中，法国的负债最多，财政赤字率也最高，而且其银行极易受到南欧国家债务危机的影响。

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One reason why interest rates are three percentage points higher in the south than in the north is that southern banks are inefficient.

ECONOMIST: Italy��s economy

Inter-bank lending is drying up and some investors are withdrawing funds particularly from southern European banks.

BBC: Will the euro survive?

But it can't compel those southern European banks, many of which are chronically lacking in confidence, to provide additional loans into the real economy to compensate for the sucking out of credit by banks from northern Europe.

BBC: Can Draghi do 'whatever it takes' to save euro?