Tenham medo

What’s more, Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou has been making statements that reveal a frightening sense of entitlement to the wealth of outsiders. He has said that the markets must be tamed by democracy, which we take to mean that he thinks Greek politicians have some metaphysical right to borrow the world’s wealth at low interest rates. In particular, he seems to share the view of many Greeks that the wealthier European countries—and Germany in particular—just owe Greek money. Which is a very strange attitude for a the country with the world’s highest debt-to-GDP ratio.

The problem with this view is that it cannot self-actuate. The Greeks lack a mechanism to force capital markets to fund them at low rates of interest. All they have is a threat of creating instability if the world does not supply them with cheap credit.

That’s what the leaders of Lehman Brothers had on their side as well. It did not end well. We won’t be surprised if Panandreou winds up at the next Dick Fuld and Greece the world’s first sovereign Lehman Brothers.

Artigo completo.