Monday, May 23, 2011

Our Big Fat Greek Default

Even in the matter of a few hours overnight, the situation in Greece has turned the risk trade OFF, lights out on risk.

The head of E.U. economics said in a Vienna conference that Greece doesn't stand a very good chance of privatizing $50 billion in public assets which is a condition for further bailout help. Furthermore 80% of the population will not agree to more wage cuts, tax increases and cutting of social programs.

The question the Greeks must be really wrangling over right now is whether to embark on the sale of assets, being it doesn't look likely and the other conditions for continued assistance aren't sitting well with the population, or to just cut loose from the EU, re-introduce a new Greek currency and stick the rest of the EU with the tab. This is the domino that would shatter Europe, banish the thought of Ireland and Portugal following in the same foot steps.

Today, everything is about Greece. The Euro continued to slide overnight and is now at  $1.4001 VERY close to an important technical level at $1.40 so it looks as of now, things are about to get a lot worse. It's reflected in premarket trading. The US economic schedule is light, so Greece will dominate the day.

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