Tuesday, February 17, 2015

This EU-Greece Mess

Over the past month, with this Greek mess....it's been like an entire season of "Dallas"....taking various twists and turns over the failing economy.

Via the German news (Channel One, ARD) last night, what you basically got was a ultimatum moment.  The EU folks put the final deal on the table for some extended bailout.....but it means that austerity actions continue.....something that Greece just wasn't going to accept.  With the recent election....the party in charge basically vowed prior to the election to end austerity and go onto "something else".  It's not been clear what these non-austerity conditions would be or how they would stage some recovery over the banking sector.

Presently, it looks like some type of meeting might occur on Friday where further talks would occur, but it looks more and more like Greece has finally hit a closed door and won't get any more extensions.  Basically.....they are bankrupt.

I sat and watched an interview with a British banker last week who says the general stock market in Europe would take a fair hit for a couple of days (maybe a ten-percent loss) if Greek took the final step and issued Drachma (their old currency).

The basic deal that the EU is offering....is merely an extension  of continued austerity and six months to figure out a better way of fixing the mess.  The present party in charge (less than three weeks) has really not had time to think of a better plan.....at least that's what most journalists believe.

Pressure on the Germans?  When they did the bridge-loan two years ago and prescribed massive austerity....it was not taken well by the Greeks.  There's still WW II issues between the two countries and the Greeks aren't taking the advice of austerity in a happy fashion.  The national unemployment rate in Greece for December 2014.....was 25.9-percent.  A fair number of young Greeks....those with education and training....have left the country and given up.  Those young Greeks may never return to Greece, which means an entire generation of society has vacated the society.

Bottom line?  This potential meeting on Friday might get pushed back to the middle of next week, while Greece works on some last-second proposal.  But I don't think there's anything left to play out.....the Drachma is coming....one way or another.

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