http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/07/opinion/07thu1.html
Dear Editor,
Thank you for a rational and factual editorial. I hope the Times
maintains this standard of reporting and editorialising regarding the
Greek financial crisis. Although Greece and Greeks share a portion of
the blame, the other side of the coin is as you call it.
Respectfully,
Nick Giannoukakis
AND, posted under "Readers comments":
http://community.nytimes.com/comments/www.nytimes.com/2011/07/07/opinion/07thu1.html#preview
Although decades of corrupt state institutions and a laissez-faire
mentality fueled the Greek debt crisis, the fire was not impossible to
put out had Germany participated early on when the size of Greece's debt
became obvious. The instruments were and are still there even at this
late hour. Does Germany have the political will to lead to save the EU,
or has it decided that the EU experiment is on its way to burial?
Germany lost the opportunity to quench the fire early when it refused to
go along with so-called Eurobond instruments a few years ago. If it had
not been Greece, it would have been Ireland (and, indeed, it was Ireland
first) and then Portugal. The bond mercenaries were preparing to go to
war, then. Now, they are in attack mode, drinking blood.
How viable a Eurobond solution to the Greek/Portuguese/Irish debt crisis
will be now is unclear. The bond merceneries will certainly attack it
with the same voracity like they attacked Greek and Portuguese bonds.
Whatever the outcome will be, it is clear that the EU must begin to rein
in speculative practices by banks, hedge funds, insurance companies and
outlaw all forms of speculative derivatives. It must regulate CDS with
impunity. Fundamentally, the basis of monetary union in the EU is
flawed. This flaw is now being exposed. How the EU develops and
implements mechanisms to overcome the absence of a real optimal currency
area is an additional element that will determine the success or failure
of the EU.
