Greek fact of the day
Via my boss:
If Greece had a dollar for each time they were blamed for the global financial crisis, they’d be able to pay their bills
I think this is worth keeping in mind. Although, if they could pay their bills there wouldn’t be a crisis. Then they wouldn’t be blamed for it. Then they wouldn’t be able to pay their bills. So I’m not sure we really have a stable equilibrium here.
Note: Another work colleague notes that if they were blamed enough to pay down the stock of debt, then we have a stable outcome. My presumption was that we were saying they received enough to just pay back interest, not principal. As a result, the total flow of funds from people willing to give Greece a dollar is very important here.
Now markets are hellishly volatile at the moment. I think that this is due to the world waiting on an announcement from Europe which will tell us exactly who is going to lose out from the ultimate Greek default. However, it probably also has something to do with Dan Carter getting injured – damn.
And if Goldman Sachs had a dollar for every time they’d been blamed for the GFC, they’d be Goldman Sachs.
I don’t think they would mind that deal – they’d probably bundle it up into vague credit instruments and try to sell them back to you.
Shouldn’t that be if Greece had a dollar for each time they were blamed for the global financial crisis, they’d be able to ditch the euro?
But would they – they don’t really have a public service left to set up a new currency, as they are all striking.
US Dollar?
God no, they need something with some store of value
For a country that so badly needs some currency depreciation, the US dollar sounds to me like the perfect choice!
As a currency to “peg” against instead of the Euro yes.
As an asset, or return on investment (as its framed in the post), no 😀
Not peg – dollarize. It worked for Zimbabwe. Could Greece really be more of a basketcase than Zimbabwe?