brutal pictures of a police thug beating the bejesus out of a protestor lying on the street? Syria? Nope... Madrid. Going back to the new issue market, I'm going to be looking at the new Barclays CoCo deal in more depth, but my first thought was you've got to think anything that could flip into likely worthless equity if core capital slips beneath 7% is a little bit worrying. Especially in a bank facing some tough questions. Many accounts believe Barclays has always been top of the list for deserving some tough questioning for some time! Of course CoCo deals are about how capital composition is defined and how the conversion trigger will work. Some of the first generation deals are very attractive if you take the time to understand the docs. However, this deal jangles a few bells -- was it targeted at retail/high net worth buyers? I suspect it was -- why else would it have a 50 cent rebate on the price? If it was sold on a "never mind the risk, look at the tasty, tasty, ever-so-tasty 7% coupon and don't worry about the rest", then I suspect some folk are holding risk they don't understand. On the ratings front I see the Italians want to hold a show-trial of the agencies for destroying the Italian bond market through their malicious lies suggesting Italy is anything else than fiscally and economically sound. On the other hand I am somewhat surprised at Fitch raising Ireland to BBB+