It has been well-chronicled that the European Financial Stability Facility can only issue about EUR 250 bln in debt and retain its AAA rating.

German ecomin Bruederle proposed over the weekend that the Facility be able to make loans to countries at variable rates, that way when it exhausts its AAA borrowing ability it can then lend at a higher rate using lower-rated paper (if I understand the proposal properly) That way the fund could expand its lending without having to increase its overall EUR 440 bln size.