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2010-05-14 Europe

Prudent Germany traumatised by task of coming to Greece's rescue

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Posted by tipper 2010-05-14 11:52|| || Front Page|| [2 views ] Top

#1 They are not rescuing Greece, it's more like buying a drunk some more booze once he's spent all his own cash.

Posted by Bright Pebbles 2010-05-14 12:00|| 2010-05-14 12:00|| Front Page Top

#2 BEING THE sensible one in the family is no fun, but its a cross the Germans have carried with dignity in the EU for decades. Of late, though, the cross has begun to weigh them down.

Sensible? Is this the same country that made $70B of morally bankrupt deals with Iraq, only to have a reality check when the US invaded the same?

Posted by gorb 2010-05-14 12:07|| 2010-05-14 12:07|| Front Page Top

#3 "BEING THE sensible one in the family is no fun"

Gee, now maybe ya'll know how we feel, having to "come back there" and save you from yourselves time and time again....

Posted by Barbara Skolaut 2010-05-14 12:54|| 2010-05-14 12:54|| Front Page Top

#4 I must disagree.

The are not rescuing Greece, they are preventing the European banking system from collapsing. It's the same idea from September, 2008 -- and whether we like to admit it or not, that massive intervention worked for what it did.

Euro banks are just as stupid as American banks, and they bought just as much government paper that turns out to be near-worthless, paper issued by Greece, Spain, Italy, etc. Anyone with a brain knows that Greece isn't good for the money they borrowed -- they were barely good for it before the world economy tanked, and they're sure not good for it now.

But if the Euro banks can't continue to value their Greek paper at par, they're going to go under, and that threatens all of us, including us Americans. The loans by the EU credit system, IMF, etc are a way to keep that from happening.

The key difference is that when the American banks and brokers started to go down in the 2008 panic, there were still good assets amidst all the toxic sludge. If we could get past the panic then rational people would sort it all out. That by and large has happened where it's been permitted to happen (e.g., NOT Fannie/Freddie). In contrast, there's next to nothing good in all the Greek paper. It's all crap, and a year from now we're going to have round 2 of this problem. The only hope is that the Greeks wake up and realize that they can't continue on the same course they've been on the last fifty years.

Oh, that'll happen.

So the rescue today is to buy time; if the EU can kick the can down the road perhaps the world economy will turn up a little and save them. It's not much of a hope but it's the only one they have.

Posted by Steve White 2010-05-14 14:49|| 2010-05-14 14:49|| Front Page Top

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