To understand why Europe is watching Turkey’s financial crisis with alarm, you just have to see this chart:

Spanish – and to a lesser extent French and Italian – banks have lent a lot of money to Turkey. So as that country spins closer to default, those banks and their governments are in danger of having massive holes punched in their financial structures.

With Greece its usual mess and Italy’s bond yields spiking, the last thing Europe needs is a banking crisis. So, as yesterday’s Wall Street Journal reports, the Continent is looking – as it always does – for Germany to step in and fix things: