1) There's a reason why an Portuguese pension fund might hold Irish debt rather than Portuguese debt; for example, wanting to hedge and diversify, earn higher returns, or have lower risks. Forcibly swapping the debt gives them an investment they didn't want, and doesn't really "make them whole".
2) It costs just as much to pay back a Portuguese pensioner who owns one of your bonds as an Irish one; this swap does nothing for government finances. Which is why this also is totally not the plan being discussed.
The article talks about "The countries can reduce their total debt..."; you're talking about reducing the exchange rate risk of the debt. There's no real overlap here.
No a Greek-issued euro debt instrument would become a new currency decoupled from the euro with a floating exchange rate if Greece left the euro, for example. That’s what all the hooplah a few years back was about.
1) There's a reason why an Portuguese pension fund might hold Irish debt rather than Portuguese debt; for example, wanting to hedge and diversify, earn higher returns, or have lower risks. Forcibly swapping the debt gives them an investment they didn't want, and doesn't really "make them whole".
2) It costs just as much to pay back a Portuguese pensioner who owns one of your bonds as an Irish one; this swap does nothing for government finances. Which is why this also is totally not the plan being discussed.
The article talks about "The countries can reduce their total debt..."; you're talking about reducing the exchange rate risk of the debt. There's no real overlap here.