If You Owe 300 Billion, The Bank Has The Problem

Remember one of the many summits when the bank representative "agreed" on a 50% haircut for Greece? Basically the banker was called into a room by Mercozy and bullying into saying "oui" (he is French).  Of course, he doesn't have any power to enforce this on the other banks but why let that get in the way of a good story.

Fast forward to today, guess what, maybe not all banks agree to "pardon" 50% (not to mention that many debt holders are not even banks and do not partake in these negotiations).  

Adding insult to injury, guess who is a major holder of Greek debt?

The price for naive expectations goes to Der Spiegel's reporter who wrote:

The Greek economy was supposed to slowly make its way toward recovery, with austerity measures taking hold and the debt mountain finally showing signs of shrinkage.

If you haven't checked our Back To The Future Section, it is time.

As for Greece, I'd say some will give them the money they need in March no matter what they do.

Calling A Spade A Spade

For a realistic point of view, call the Germans.  This article in today's Der Spiegel gives not only a nice History of the debt problem (as with any complex subject it is necessarily incomplete) but also recognizes the need for a painful solution.  Unfortunately, it will probably fall on deaf ears.  As anyone who has dealt with a budget knows, one thing is to say "we need to save" and another one is to forgo those "necessary" expenditures.