U.S. Companies Conduct Fire Drills In Case Greece Exits Euro

The ancient temple of Parthenon atop the Acropolis hill is illuminated by late evening sunlight in Athens on May 18, 2010. (ARIS MESSINIS/AFP/Getty Images)

www.nytimes.com:

Even as Greece desperately tries to avoid defaulting on its debt, American companies are preparing for what was once unthinkable: that Greece could soon be forced to leave the euro zone.

Read the whole story at www.nytimes.com

Comments

[Sundialsvc4]

04:33 PM on 09/04/2012

The European Union asks every member State to give up its ancient sovereignty. To cease to be a Country; to be a State.

The United States each gave up their sovereignty long ago, to a central government east of the Potomac River who is accountable to none of them. Perhaps, in this not-yet 250 year old FAILED experiment of a Republic, that's "okay." But to Greece and others, it is not.

When a group of sailors are fighting for their lives on the pitching decks of a ship, they know not to tie themselves together, lest all of them go over the side when one of them does.

[sking007]

09:11 AM on 09/04/2012

Yeah, and I'm sure we'll learn about how some US banks placed bets on the Greek fall-out only to have the tax payers bail them out.

[JoAnn Kennedy]

10:31 AM on 09/04/2012

Why not, the banksters always hedge their bets --- look at AIG and Merrill Lynch

[Mike Pristave]

07:24 AM on 09/04/2012

Any economist will tell you that an insignificant microstate in Europe has no effect on our economic situation here what so ever. Its like humans vs an ant. It would take an army of these insignificant microstates to become even an annoyance.

The only thing we have to fear is massive protests and disruption in that country when visiting the ruins built back in a time of when they mattered.

[George McAulay]

03:36 AM on 09/04/2012

I'd like to see the greedy banks that caused the global financial crisis brought to heel by the EU printing euros to pay off all the debt as well as the USA printing dollars to pay off its massive debt.

The drop in the values of both currencies would see America and countries like Greece, Spain etc become more competitive.

About time these vile banking institutions took a hit as they have only continued to act as before when they were bailed out. None of them are too big to fail or to be made to toe the line.

[Mr MOTO]

12:46 PM on 09/04/2012

But I thought it was the Republicans according to the "Progressives" ....

[George McAulay]

12:55 PM on 09/04/2012

The banks 'own' both parties

[frank1946]

12:05 AM on 09/04/2012

FY 2013 looks grim tonight !

Europe in the Pits and Feds finally run out of $$$........................fix Medicare or else !

Obama needs to borrow cab-fare to Union Station ?

Let's Hope with some Change !

[spiralskydancer]

10:32 PM on 09/03/2012

The American capitalists are about to launch an attack on the European capitalists. First casualty will be Greece. Greece will become largely American owned. All that capital sitting on the sideline ($21 - $32 Trillion) has got to go somewhere. The orgy of the investors is about to begin.

[Mr MOTO]

12:44 PM on 09/04/2012

This is a German and ECB run coup ...

[spiralskydancer]

10:47 PM on 09/04/2012

American capitalists against German capitalists then....

[tkhatch]

08:28 PM on 09/03/2012

Greece wanted to live the high life just like the imagined Europeans. They only have a service economy based on tourism.They are not producing anything.Their merchant fleet is large but pay very low taxes,it is in their constitution.Their prices were pumped by borrowed low interest euro loans.The solution is leave the euro currency and have your own currency that reflects your economic conditions.They will still be in the euro zone.In time they will be fine in accordance with their economic conditions.

[Kungsholm]

12:14 PM on 09/04/2012

Banskster loaned funds to Greece based on Greece's projected income revenue.. one of those revenue streams was the collection of taxes... Greece where the favorite number 1 sport is tax evasion continued to get loans from the banksters... Those banksters knew that the revenue stream would/could never meet muster..yet they still approved the loan upon loans..

[simian sez]

07:52 PM on 09/03/2012

And it's a relative certainty that the cost of preparing for the exit of Greece from the Euro by American companies will a) cost a lot of money...and that b) those "losses" to some degree will be passed on to the American consumer and others.
Because let's face it...When is the last time anyone can recall a large American business taking the hit for their failed outward expansions and/or bad business decisions?!

[Americangangster]

07:41 PM on 09/03/2012

Who cares?! The world would be much better off if Greece would just disappear. No one works, and they all expect to retire at 50. To be fair, that seems to be the motto for most of Europe.

[how goes the matrix]

09:10 PM on 09/03/2012

"It's hard to believe a human being could be so stupid. May God have mercy on your soul."

[BeerLover]

09:52 PM on 09/03/2012

You need to take a trip to Europe...or three. Seems like you're a typical American ignoramus and arrogantus gigantus.

[Michael GE]

02:18 AM on 09/04/2012

Uhm, who said we would grant him/her a visa? Are we now the global dustbin? Or a zoo? Or a reality show?
You think it's somehow funny to time and again explain people that castle Neuschwanstein wasn't built in the image of Disneyland but the other way round? And that the "castle" isn't medieval at all? *kidding a bit*

[withonor]

06:08 PM on 09/03/2012

Raise taxes on the people who caused and benefited the most from the financial mess the world is in now. Every country that has the capability needs to do it. The punishment should fit the crime. Prison won't do anything to these guys. Hitting them in the pocket book will. As they start paying for their mistakes, so will all the governments who are struggling with debt or have any debt at all.

[Americangangster]

07:39 PM on 09/03/2012

It's hard to believe a human being could be so stupid. May God have mercy on your soul.

[withonor]

09:33 PM on 09/03/2012

Those who resort to name calling first are also those who run out of intelligence first. Please keep your fantasies to yourself.

[BeerLover]

09:53 PM on 09/03/2012

LOLOL!!! You ARE stupid......I mean, REALLY stupid.

[EdCorner]

07:43 PM on 09/03/2012

We need to do more than raise taxes on the culprits, prosecute and claw back ill-gotten gains. But under this administration, that isn't going to happen - ever. He will continue to let them steal from the Treasury

[avenir]

05:19 PM on 09/03/2012

The Euro is here to stay.
Why?
Because it's more expensive to give it up.

[Open source intelligence]

05:02 PM on 09/03/2012

We're soon to follow. The collapse of the Euro and the Dollar is mathematical fact. Republicans support the willing arson of our entire infrastructure and Democrats just want to kick the can down the road.

There is no amount of taxation, no amount of spending cuts that could possibly allow us to ever pay back our debt. It is mathematically impossible. The national debt is $16 trillion, but when you factor in other government obligations like medicare and social security the figure shoots to over $70 trillion. The interest on these liabilities alone is going to cause the debt to grow exponentially from this point forward. The national debt already HAS been growing exponentially since the 70's.

Our centrally managed system of controlled interest rates is a literal Ponzi scheme. The only way that we can maintain the illusion that our economy works is to continue selling treasury bonds in order to pay off the debt, but this practice is exactly like using one credit card to pay off another. The minute that people stop investing in treasury bonds our entire economic system will collapse.

The best solution would be to follow Iceland's lead and root out the central banking system, creating a national bank that is ACTUALLY controlled by the government and is funded at first by repatriated offshore money.

Until a politician comes forward and tells it to us straight, you can't trust any of them. Stop pretending.

[Michael GE]

02:28 AM on 09/04/2012

*sighs*

"The collapse of the Euro and the Dollar is mathematical fact."

OK, put forward the equation/ mathematical proof and let's have a look at it. You know, it's one of the nice things about math: It's pure logic condensed into straightforward formulas independent of language. So far, your argument is politics and economics.

So, show your math and let's test it regarding consistency.

[wonketteRAWKS]

05:00 PM on 09/03/2012

Greece is hurting! They want their greek columns back from 2008!

[edvince]

03:05 PM on 09/03/2012

Greece got into the problems it has because the too big to fail banks sold them our contagion of the securities like credit default swaps, mortgage backed securities CDOs etc, etc that they told everybody were triple AAA rated, when in fact they were totally worthless. The global banksters ran a ponzi scheme on them & countries all over Europe, Ponzi Scheme unraveling, countries that bought into it are paying the price. 80 to 90% of Greece's debt is not owned by the Greek govt. It is owned by the "too big to fail" banks. European Central Bank gave $125 billion dollars in bailout funds to help Spain pull out of their tailspin, but not a dime of that went to the Spanish Government or the Spanish people it went straight to the Spanish banks to keep them solvent and to keep them from going under. EU's problems have nothing to do with "socialism" The problems are a direct result of the Ponzi scheme the global cartel of bankers ran on countries in Europe and US.Bottom line is that too big to fail banks have about 10 to 15 times of their market cap in debt they can never have any hope of repaying. The too big to fail banks are totally insolvent and are bigger threat to the US economy than the National debt.

[Michael GE]

02:44 AM on 09/04/2012

"It is owned by the "too big to fail" banks."

May have been but that was years ago. Particularly since the "haircut" accompanying the second bailout pretty much all Greek sovereign debt is held by European taxpayers.

"European Central Bank gave $125 billion dollars in bailout funds to help Spain [...]"

No, it was/ will be the EFSF/ ESM, not the ECB. And it went/ will go to Spanish PUBLIC banks (not the large private banks like Santander, etc.). Mind that I am not even remotely trying to defend banks or their previous lending practices but in this case we are mostly talking about banks whose board of directors were politically/ publicly assigned and for whom, if they collapse, the Spanish taxpayers are completely on the hook.

"EU's problems have nothing to do with "socialism"".
I absolutely agree. To claim this is just an US/ Presidential and/or Congressional election campaign talking point. I mean, doesn't matter how much you agree or disagree with the likes of President Hollande or Sarkozy, Chancellor Merkel, Prime Minister Monti or whomever but NONE of them is Palin-esque, Bachman-esque, Limbough-esque, Ryan-esque, "I am not a witch"-esque or "Olympic security"-esque.
People who are like that are - generally speaking - gathered on a remote island in a formation called UKIP. :)

[OverseasVet]

02:42 PM on 09/03/2012

The same names associated with calapse of the US markets are listed in this article. It truely is global corporations that are destroying countries as they steal from working people everywhere. The next French revolution just may be global.

[edvince]

03:10 PM on 09/03/2012

Yeap in 2005 JP Morgan made profits of 77 billion in mortage backed securites and CDO's all the Snr Mgmt walked out of the ponzi scheme with double figured million dollar bonuses. US govt banking regulations and laws allowed the scheme to work efficiently until everything ran dry. Wham baam ka-boom Global crisis spreads like wild fires 36 mos later in summer of 08.

[simian sez]

07:59 PM on 09/03/2012

You said a mouthful!
f&f