German Bunds

any banks will buy bunds for you. one caveat, should the euro fall apart, the bund will suffer massively. or you think that the deutsche bank of this world have no exposure to pigs bonds?
it s almost pointless to invest in them, not at 2.5% ( and surprise surprise, their cds is widening too ..)

Cheers Johnnie, as im someone based in dublin have you any suggestions on where might be the safest place for bank deposits denominated in euro - both personal and business?

Foreign currencies such as GBP, USD, Yen, Swiss franc etc give a lot of FX risk bearing in mind that we have to live and trade in euro in the near term at least.

But also feel that if ireland or other PIIGS withdrew from the euro or were forced out, bank accounts would be frozen and reopened in some form of weakened currency eg. Punt, Drachma, Escudo, Paseta etc in a similar manner to Argentina in 2001

Obviously nothing is risk-free at this stage, but might people be better off with German issued euro notes in the attic?

there s no chance that the piigs will be moving to their original ccy. too much debt in euros is making the scenario unmanageable. the only thing possible, would be germany and other core european ccies to leave the euro and form a super euro, trading at 30-40% premium, making the debt issued in piggy euro more manageable by the issuing countries but without the legal complications of going back to the old ccies. this is a possibility that s been studied, but wont go thru as german exports would suffer. from todays comments from juncker and tremonti and from a lot of other small signals, i reckon we re more likely to see a fiscal union or some sort of embryonic version of it. in the meantime, if you re moved only by fear of losing your savings and not really trying to get a return, bonds but even defensive shares in the german market are a better option compared to others.

too much debt in euros is making the scenario unmanageable

unmanageable for who????

has the word "restructure" with 80% haircuts or complete "default" ever cross your mind?

who's got the problem then?

Menelaus, the 80% haircuts etc are possible but are they the most likely scenario at this current point in time? Surely you'd agree that the eurocrats/central bankers/feds are more likely to try other measures first - if so what do you think those measures will be, and in what order might they be deployed?

of course haircuts can and will possibly happen, i think i discussed it with you on the deflation thread.
the point i was making, and trust me is the point been made in bruxelles too, is this one.
imagine greece, going out of the euro and back to the drachma. their national debt is anyway issued in euros. next thing you know the drachma will FOR SURE devalue by 40% to the euro, making the already massive mountain of debt an even heavier weight on their shoulders. alternatively they could stay in the euro, while other countries go out to form the supereuro, which will go on to trade at 40% premium to the piggy one. the national debt of greece would stay the same, in the meantime their ccy will effectively devalue and give them back the competitiveness they lost to core europe in the past 10yrs. making it finally easier to generate the necessary surpluses that are required to decrease that debt. 
of course debt issued in old euros will be somewhat devalued in the portfolios of core countries investors, and this would be viewed the same as an haircut; but at least all the domestic part of the debt will not suffer losses ( and in some of these peripheric countries domestic debt is the big majority, take for example italy ), the haircuts would be gradual ( following the fx rate between the 2 euros ) and potentially the losses could come back sometime in the future if the fx rate came back ( in 5/10yrs time you could have the piggy euro area seen as a new hot area, look what happened to the ruble from defaulting to bric in less than 10yrs ).
but some recent studies which were published in germany a couple of weeks ago, show that the cost of restructuring the debt, or the cost of having the pigs leaving the euro ( and kill the german exports ) are much greater costs than the fiscal transfers themselves. in other words, germany could be ready to accept a much greater fiscal union, and the creation of a europen debt agency could be the first step.

80%+ probability Greece will default and be back to the drachma by end 2012. Other PIIGS will follow.

Why?

The people will force it, not the politicians or the banks, once the devastating impact of the deflationary depression their corrupt governments have consigned them to begins to set in.

The periphery sovereign debt problems haven't been solved, they've merely been kicked down the road and made worse when the day of reckoning comes.