Portugal's borrowing costs rose sharply Wednesday as it sold almost one and a half billion dollars in short-term securities.

"There seems to be a predominance of short-term thinking at the expense of long-term investing," said Commissioner Daniel Gallagher of the US Securities and Exchange Commission in a speech this week.

Many German Banks filled their balance sheets with asset-backed securities bought with cheap short-term funding in a strategy that unravelled spectacularly when funding dried up last year.