Not accounted for in these sovereign debt numbers is the banks' exposure to off-balance-sheet items, equities and commercial and residential loans in PIIGS countries.

FORBES: International Investing

The PIIGS countries include Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain and are grouped together by many analysts because of their similar high levels of debt and spending.

FORBES: Raising The Debt Ceiling Is Just Kicking The Can Further Down The Road

The only real solution for insolvent Europe is to explicitly default on the debt to a level that brings PIIGS countries to a debt to GDP ratio below 60%.

FORBES: Europe's Solution Isn't More Inflation

While Greece dominates headlines with a 12.7% budget deficit and a 300 billion euro debt (as of early March 2010), the rest of the so-called PIIGS countries (Portugal, Ireland, Italy and Spain) wallow in high debt levels as well, triggering further alarm about the future of the European Union.

FORBES: French Finance Minister Lagarde On The PIIGS

Germans insist that PIIGS and other weak euro zone countries pass crippling austerity measures otherwise they will be penalized (and, therefore, further weakened).

FORBES: While Europe Slides, Germany Plays Hardball On Financial Transaction Tax

In fact, yields on 10-year U.S. Treasuries have fallen significantly as prices have increased due to investors shifting money from European debt to U.S. debt following the ongoing problems with the outstanding debt of the PIIGS (Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain) countries and the lack of market satisfaction with the recently announced bailout plan for Spain and Italy in particular.

FORBES: Should The U.S. Credit Rating Downgrade Really Concern You?

Of the heavily-indebted so-called PIIGS (Portugal, the Irish Republic, Italy, Greece and Spain) countries, Irish shares fared best.

BBC: World stock markets end a tumultous year well down