Tuesday, August 25, 2015

Think of some ships at sea and a storm is coming. The ships want to clear their decks so they aren't top heavy. For the SS Eurozone to take on 200 billion or so euros of defaulted Greek debt now would make it top heavy. Better to leave it 'off balance sheet' as a contingent liability and worry about it later. Let's say some big European banks are heading for trouble because of some Latin American loans ( Brazil is near collapse) or because they are short the dollar. The SS Eurozone is going to need all the financial ballast it has to keep the ship from capsizing. Greece won't matter if that happens...Bank doing predatory lending. It is all they can do now. These are not loans to Greece they are bailouts for the creditors. If you borrow money you can spend it how you choose. If the lender tells you how you must spend it, then it isn't a loan.  If you are responsible for spending the money you are responsible for paying it back. But here, it is the creditors who are making all the decisions. Nobody is forcing them to lend the Greeks money, so the question is WHY ARE THEY LENDING MONEY TO GREECE?..The Greek people were sacrificed. I have to wonder who made Tsipras make this 180 degree turn. Wouldn't it have been better if Tsipras didn't call for elections if this is the result? His closest allies are Nea Democratia now...It was reported this week that Germany stands to get 85bn out of Greece's misery and the change to the interest arrangements.
Should there be no write off of Greek debt, this crisis will be permanent, but the Eurofanatics cannot let the dream die, whatever the cost......Deutschland Uber Alles never had such resonance...
What should worry everyone is that, for some reason, all the parties are moving this new deal along without the usual haggling and complaints. This appears to be not so much an exercise in kicking the can as 'sweeping the whole mess under the rug'. So one might ask why the need for a quick resolution of an intractable problem?  My guess is a much bigger storm is about to hit. The turmoil in Forex started by the Chinese devaluation of the RMB and the collapse of commodity prices and the shrinking of trade, indicate a major financial crisis is imminent and Greece just does not matter anymore. Greece, if you will is yesterday's problem. A Northern Rock when RBS and Lehman Brothers are crumbling.

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