Comment du Jour

5 May

Heed the Greek Crisis

Evoking an ominous tale of mythology, the current financial crisis in Greece threatens to undermine the European currency, the Euro, and more especially rattle global markets and nerves.

Now nearly six months into this financial tragedy, we see the French and German governments (read taxpayers) grudgingly prepared to bail out $236 billion in Greek DEBT!! And the IMF of course is a player.

The lessons of the Greek socialist government’s profligate spending, fiscal irresponsibility, and sloppy oversight has turned a crisis in a small European country into a wider challenge affecting all Euroland.

Tellingly it provides a cautionary tale for the United States itself.

The hydra-headed monster of massive government spending creating debt, deficit and depression threatens Greece. Government debt as a percent of GDP stands at a whopping 125 percent. But Greece, alas, is a small country of eleven million people but its influence in the global market, as its influence in Western is far greater.

Bankers speak about contagion from Greece spreading to Spain, Portugal and Ireland.

Should we be less polite and use the word Dominos????

(actually in early February I wrote a large and detailed column predicting this..please go to my April file)