Wednesday 2 November 2011

A Greek Tragedy?

Did I mention the great Euro Zone bail; out last week in passing?
Well I thought there were creaks in what had been agreed because it seemed short on firm detail such as where the much trumpeted One Trillion Euros to but aside for any contingencies not just this business with Greece going to come from as Germany had specifically refused to give a direct contribution from it's treasury for it?
Well it seems to little more than a target figure to go pay visits to countries with rich foreign reserves such as China and ask them -nay beg - for a loan.
China it seems feels the Euro Zone has to put its house in financial order and is in any event not really interested.
Yesterday though the Greek Premier announced that the people of Greece will have a referendum around January on conditions they agreed only the week before on the bail out.
Trouble is he never said this to the other European leaders present which looks very close to bad faith because it opens up the possibility that the voters may reject the deal. If he says "No I'll go with what we decided back in October" then the Greek electorate may well be very angry with him which would lead at the least to political instability.
The markets are scared, China by all accounts doesn't want to know about the bail out feeling it no longer counts for anything.
No where does leave the rest of us?

1 comment:

Jess said...

Between a rock and a hard place, I fear