Monday, January 30, 2012

The Summit-of-the-Month Program

Let's see . . . 24 divided by 17 equals 1.4.

There have been 17 summit meetings of European leaders in the last 24 months.  That sounds more like regular monthly meetings instead of important summit meetings.

Another is being held today, and it is important!  This crisis could take a major turn for the better if the Germans don't over-reach and try to take control of Greek fiscal policy.  The Greeks are understandably furious about this.  Imagine Canada, who has been more prudent and is in better financial condition than the U.S., trying to tell Americans how much they can tax and spend.

In addition -- and this is a little tricky -- when the ECB and World Bank starting supporting the bonds of Greece by buying them, they paid market prices.  Once this deal with bondholders is worked out, the value of those bonds will increase substantially.  The other bondholders, all private, will lose 60-70% in face value of the bonds.  Understandably, they don't think they should take all the losses when the public bondholders (ECB & World Bank) make a profit on the same investment.

I'm getting more optimistic they might actually pull this crisis out of the fire . . . let us pray!