THE delightful (though small) plates of tapas that often accompany an evening drink in Spain can, if eaten with gusto, end up replacing the meal they were meant to precede. After four years of appetiser-sized bank restructurings, bail-outs and reforms, Spain’s banking system may finally be getting its fill of public money.

On November 28th the

EVER since Argentina defaulted on $81 billion of debt in 2001, it has been thumbing its nose at its creditors. Those who rejected its offers in 2005 and 2010 to swap non-performing securities for new bonds worth much less have won a series of judgments in American courts ordering the country to pay. But Argentina had few assets in America that