| > Other countries have managed to claw themselves out of bigger holes than this One of the main reasons why other countries have been able to quietly improve their economy is the fact that the markets are real busy betting against Greece. They have been forced to issue Government debt at huge interest rates (at some point 15% if I remember correctly). We are living in a world with global markets for private capital, but without global defenses for the national governments. The few global institutions that are supposed to act on a global level (IMF, UN, World Bank, ...) are controlled by a market-fundamentalist ideology, making them enemies instead of friends. All this would be nice and good if we were living in a perfect market, where all players are treated equally. Instead, we are living in a world where: - rating agencies hold huge power because of the favoritism that they get from political elites: credit papers have to be rated by one of the international agencies for some funds/governments to be able to invest in them - banks are too big to fail - financial markets are rigged in favor of some players (dollar) - banks are allowed to make huge profits with a zero risk game, unloading risky credit on taxpayers whenever deemed necessary. The market is only there for the suckers. |