Bankruptcy

Europe Tries to Solve Greek Debt Problem

By mcbride

In trying to convince markets (and themselves) that the Greek debt problem is a localized issue and not really spreading, European governments, which include the weaker ones, like Portugal and Italy, have a agreed to an initial bail out for Greece.  Essentially, they will make Greece?s debt payments, so it does not default.  But that of course only post pones any real resolution, which must entail reducing the debt significantly since increasing Greece?s ability to make payments is impossible.  The German Foreign Minister said: ?What is important now is that we must extinguish the fire so no brush fire spreads in Europe, and we must at the same time fight the cause of the fire.?  There was no word about addressing the cause of the problem, however.  ?Portugal’s Parliament on Friday approved its share of the bailout ? just over euro2 billion ? for Greece.  Even as Portugal readied to loan to Greece, its own interest rate gap, or spread, between Portuguese and benchmark German 10-year bonds, was ticking higher ? a sign that debt fears were infecting market views of Lisbon’s situation.?  Prediction: just like TARP 1 was not enough to bail out US banks and all the ?stimulus? money did was post pone the day of reckoning, this bail out will not be enough, more will follow, increasing other European countries? debt, until there is no more will to provide another bail out.  Without significant debt forgiveness, the problem will only worsen.  In the end, a broader melt down in on the way, IMHO. 

Here is a link: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100507/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_europe_financial_crisis

Michael

Full post as published by Texas Lawyer Blog on May 07, 2010 (boomark / email).