Monday, May 28, 2012

Greece: Should I stay or should I go?


It’s Memorial Day in the U.S., but the other world markets are busy today.  Things are looking up for Greece as voters are leaning towards the pro-bailout parties…meaning Greece will have a good chance of staying in the Euro.

Should Greece stay part of the Euro currency?  This is the question that has been hotly debated across the blogosphere the past few weeks.

This one says YES, stay with the Euro

This one says NO, Greece shouldn’t have been part of the Euro in the first place…

And this one says even if Greece DID exit the Euro, it wouldn’t solve Europe’s problems, so there is essentially no point.

What do I think?  Well, you  know how there are marriages with prenups?  That’s what this is.  The Euro Zone married Greece with a prenup.  It’s like Greece is stuck in a marriage she doesn’t really WANT to be in anymore, but if she leaves, she’ll be left with NOTHING.  Except a worthless currency and high inflation.  I think devastating consequences aside, if Greece could safely exit the Euro, and there were reserves of Drachma ready (and the Drachma was actually worth something), this wouldn’t even be an issue.  Greece would exit and the Euro Zone could focus its efforts on something else…like Spain.

Maybe Keynes’ Bancor idea needs to be revisited…
 

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