Saturday, November 5, 2011

Greek Political Turmoil

According to the news media, what Greek politicians do next will determine whether or not the current Euro crisis can be "resolved." Not really.

The main significance of the past week of Greek political back and forth is that political leaders throughout Europe are in trouble -- big trouble.

Countries forced into austerity measures will, in the end, replace their political leadership. That process is already under way in Greece and Spain and is surfacing in Italy as well.

Countries who are putting their taxpayers on the line to support the bailout of the profligate countries will also soon begin the process of replacing their political leaders -- Germany and France.

Neither side of this grand scheme, the bailors or the bailees, have the support of their voters. Why is this a surprise? The effort to bail out the sovereign debt problems of Greece, Spain, Italy (Portugal, Ireland) is a "lose-lose" policy and voters can see clearly that it is not in their interest, no matter what country they live in.

What works is a recognition that the debts are unsustainable and that it is time to sit down with creditors and do a workout -- a planned default.

It might take changing the political leadership in all major European countries, not just in Greece, to get the focus on the real solution to the European debt crisis.