The Boston Consulting Group is a serious bunch of analysts. They are not given to flippancy, so when they write that Europe needs to write down about 6 trillion euros of debt, and billions more in the US and Japan, it raises my eyebrows. I don't subscribe to their remedies, but must acknowledge that the markets may force the rather draconian write-downs in another form (rather than the direct asset taxation they talk about). This is thinking the truly unthinkable.