We thought this to be a very informative chart, which shows the percentage of a country’s sovereign debt held by domestic and foreign residents.   In general, the more a country’s debt is held by foreigners the higher the risk of capital flight and a sudden loss of confidence.  This increases “rollover risk” and the need for restructuring and/or bailout.  There is no coincidence Ireland and Greece have a high concentration of their public debt held by foreigners.    The table below on fiscal balances also shows that sovereign debt issues are not going away.