Deadbeats

Wow.

FRANKFURT—The German central bank will no longer accept government or other bank bonds from Ireland, Greece and Portugal as collateral, becoming the first euro-zone central bank to exercise a new privilege to protect their balance sheets from the region's debt crisis ...

(T)he Deutsche Bundesbank has decided to no longer accept bonds guaranteed by Ireland, Greece and Portugal, starting with €500 million ($665.1 million) already on its balance sheet, a spokeswoman said Friday.

All three countries are receiving loans from the EU and the IMF to keep their governments afloat.

"Our credit assessment of these government-guaranteed bank bonds does not meet the minimum requirements for collateral," the Bundesbank spokeswoman said.

That can't happen here, right?