Why should 330 million Europeans face a financial and likely political meltdown for the sake of 11 million profligate Greeks?
They should not. Just ask the angry Germans who actually believe there is no free lunch.
The best thing for the Greeks and for Europe is for Greece to be asked to quietly leave the Euro club. That's the simple, brutal solution to the current financial crisis that is threatening to tear apart the European Union and provoke a global financial crisis.
As the old New York expression goes, "first loss, best loss." Meaning, the longer one delays taking a loss, the worse it gets.
Greece, let's recall, wriggled into the 17-member Eurozone by faking its accounts and falsifying economic and tax figures. The EU closed its eyes to these frauds because of a desire to unite all of Europe.
So, it seems, did Italy, which currently owes money lenders €2 trillion and must borrow €300 billion this year alone just to service its gargantuan debts.
Panic over Italy's awesome debts has now begun, as Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi -- who has done a pretty good job of managing unmanageable Italy -- clings to power by his well-manicured fingernails. Unlike the EU's mostly dreary leaders, at least "il commendatore" has style and panache.
Three other nations, Romania, Bulgaria and Cyprus, were also admitted to the EU for similar bad reasons. Greek Cyprus is in the Eurozone; Romania and Bulgaria are not, though euros are widely used by both nations.
Greece's financial and political crisis has infected Europe and threatens to ignite a banking crisis as destructive and dangerous as the 2008 collapse of Wall Street's Lehman Brothers.
It's very sad to see this disaster. For me, Greeks are delightful people: fun-loving, zesty, smart, hard-working. The problem is that many of the most capable, industrious alpha Greeks long ago decamped to the US, Canada, Australia and the Mideast to escape their corrupt governments and unfriendly business environment. Greeks own many of America's restaurants and the world's ships.
Left behind in Greece were too many lazy public sector workers and do-nothing bureaucrats who owed their sinecures to political patronage. Dynastic political clans rotated in power, weaving Byzantine intrigues as the economy went to the dogs.
Greece's socialists and conservatives both stuffed government with supporters to buy their votes. Since few Greeks paid any taxes, Greece's corrupt political class had to borrow from abroad to keep the lights on in Athens.
Europe's witless lemming bankers poured into higher-yielding Greek debt, heedless of the dangers, believing the old truism, "government don't go bankrupt." But they do.
Austerity or no austerity, there is no way Greece can ever make good on its debts unless Europe uses financial smoke and mirrors to sustain its massive borrowings. Few Europeans, however, are eager to support Greece's "dolce vita" when they themselves face growing austerity. Besides, Greece will never be able to pay off its debts from tourism and exporting olives.
Kicking Greece out of the Eurozone will obviously create a huge explosion. Many Greek banks, which are also active in the Balkans and Cyprus, will go under. There will be runs on the banks by panicked Greek depositors. Greek trade will be disrupted. Russian banks will be shaken.
Europe's reckless bankers, particularly the French, will suffer major losses on Greek public and private debt. They deserve it. The banking fools who piled into Greek debt should be fired.
Greece must swallow bitter medicine. Doing so is absolutely vital if the poison of too much debt is to be purged from Europe's sickly body.
Debt addiction must be broken, both in Europe and the United States. Time for cold turkey.
Germany, once the scourge of Europe but now hailed as its potential savior, will have to join France in shoring up banks that are holding pots of Greek debt.
Some big banks should be nationalized, if necessary. If too big to fail, they are a national security risk and must be either taken over or broken up.
Now is a good time to take action. The Greek debacle should be used by governments to break the power of the bankers by imposing taxes on financial transactions, heavily taxing banker's unseemly bonuses, and sharply limiting bank's ability to lend more than they hold in assets.
Just this past week, the shocking collapse of Wall Street trading firm MF Global showed that even after the 2008 crash, US federal regulators have utterly failed to assure the financial system's safety.
We learn that MF Global had leveraged its capital 35 or even 42 to 1, the same perilous ratio that brought down Wall Street's titans in 2008. That means MF Global lent out or invested $35-42 for every dollar it held. That's crazy Las Vegas behavior and a formula for disaster.
In the United States and many other nations, the cost of borrowing money is tax deductible. This unwarranted subsidy to borrowers encourages the dominance of finance over manufacturing, and encourages reckless risk-taking. It has allowed big finance to buy politicians in the US, Britain and Europe.
Back to the Greeks. They will be fine on their own once the poison of debt leaves their system. Greece, always a poor nation, tried to live big like North Europeans -- on credit. Greeks should go back to their former slower, more modest Mediterranean ways.
Bring back the dear old drachma, make Greeks work again at home, and relearn to live within their means.
But then what about the Italians, Irish, Portuguese and Spaniards? That's the 64,000 lire question.
copyright Eric S. Margolis 2011
Follow Eric Margolis on Twitter: www.twitter.com/@ericmargolis
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First of all the EU is not bailing out Greece, it is bailing out European banks that knowingly loaned money to a country with a history of bad economic policy. It was common knowledge that Greece hid a lot of debt, helped by Goldman Sachs, so it could enter the Euro. The banks irresponsibly lent money to Greece that they knew could not be paid back and knowing that the EU would bail them out. Germany was one the worst so it could keep its exports going (40% of GDP).
Greece should default on 100% of its loans and let these financial predators fail. It will certainly create hardship for Greece for a year or two but the current European plan would enslave Greece for at least a decade. With a devalued Drachma, it would be the low cost vacations spot in Europe.
So far the only country that held a referendum on whether or not to join the Euro, was Denmark, and the Danish were clever enough to say "Nej" (thanks, but no thanks)
The real problem with the Euro is that its the financial counterpart of the Concorde aircraft, an aircraft critics have called the fastest flying White Elephant in the sky.
Like the Concorde, the euro suffers from a sunk cost problem, that is costs that have already been incurred and cannot be recovered. Many of our politicians are loss-averse, since they have to think of elections and careers, and thus act irrationally when making economic decisions. The idea of a single fiscal and monetary union (effectively a European Superstate) is political suicide in present Europe. And quite right so too, as this will effectively eradicate any form of democratic control.
Greece is the first victim of this sort of "Realpolitik" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Realpolitik) to deal with the overal flawed design of the euro. This is a disgrace, considering ancient Greece was the cradle of democracy.
Mr. Margolis is one of the many commentators who cannot do but blame the victims.
True, and Greeks also controlled a medieval empire that continued the classical world's traditions and had no "Dark Ages" as occurred in western Europe. They shielded a barbarized Europe from several Persian and Arab onslaughts, and they successfully did this for several hundred years - that is, until the Fourth Crusade stabbed them in the back. But, enough of the history lesson.
In short, seems to me that there is plenty of blame to go around, and Greece, being the first on the continent to go through the wringer, has received the brunt of the condemnation, though Spain and Italy pose an even larger threat to the EU and its finances.
Did enjoy this bit though: "Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi -- who has done a pretty good job of managing unmanageable Italy -- clings to power by his well-manicured fingernails. Unlike the EU's mostly dreary leaders, at least "il commendatore" has style and panache." Better let the Italians know right away-- they're shaking him off their backs this very minute!
Law1-- Jail for non-payment of taxes.
Law2 -- Institute German style of tax collecting: you pay your taxes and then ask for deductions.
Law3-- No member of your family shall be employed at your office or company.
Law4- country-wide audit of those who are listed as employees but don't show up to work ( Hint: Members of your extended family shall not perform the audit.)
It's not a total solution, but it is a start.
You could not be more wrong, Eric. Obscene wealth protecting predatory, borderline-pedophile behaviour is not stylish. Hair plugs and fake tan are not panache.
Just goes to show that even important political commentators are not immune to Billionaires' PR departments.
After all he was much smarter than the rest of the world, bought European debt at deep discounts to the face value with borrowed money, collaterilized with said debt. Oops -- the NRV of the debt dropped and MFG didn't have anything to meet the margin call.
He also had over $100 billion in options and future positions on the mercantile exchange -- gambling, speculating and risk taking on a massive scale.
That on it's own is enough, however, it also appears that Corzine used hundreds of millions of client money, which was supposed to be segregated, to fund his adventures.
The best thing Greece could do is exit the EMU, default, regain their currency sovereignty, regain their national sovereignty and restructure their obligations.
The Euro is structurally flawed and France, Germany and the IMF all of which no one in Greece voted for or elected should not be imposing any rules on any State, regardless of the issue.