It is interesting to remember that, not too long ago, we were told that "Greek was not Argentina" (true, Argentina's debt to gdp ratio was only 55% in 2001) just like we were then told that Portugal is not Greece and Spain is not Portugal. Someone forgot to point out that neither Greece nor France are Germany, but we digress.
What is obvious at this point is that
- the Greek people are not better off than 12 months ago and there is no plan to fix their problems.
- The discussion over who pays to recapitalize the French banks who lent all that money to Greece clearly illustrates that the whole show (the bailouts, the EFSF, the ECB changing rules, a summit every 6 weeks, etc) is for the benefit of the politically astute French and maybe German banks (and bankers) and not for the benefit of the citizens of Greece, Portugal or any of the affected countries.
- None of the predictions made by the IMF, the European governments and/or the ECB regarding Greece have come true. In fact, every time they take a look, they find a worse than expected situation. Yet, somehow, they keep making bold predictions with reckless abandon which are duly parroted by the friendly press.
- The last bailout plan agreed in July (less than 3 months ago) was a cruel joke. Beginning with the 50billion (euros) in privatization revenues.
- The European stress tests (there were 2 already) were a total waste of time. Dexia, which was recently taken into receivership by France and Belgium, passed with flying colors.
No comments:
Post a Comment