Here's a 90-day exchange rate

Desider — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 06:23:04 +0000

Here's a 90-day exchange rate graph with the dollar - does not look like the Euro's hitting a huge slide. http://www.exchange-rates.org/history/EUR/USD/G/90

Everyone predicted doom and gloom for the Euro back in 1998 or whenever it was - figured it would be the red-haired gap-toothed step child, surprised when it succeeded.

I get a bit of Schadenfreude over Greece and the currency crisis, as how the EU screwed Turkey twice over membership and over Cyprus membership, when the Turks negotiated in good faith and the Greeks stonewalled but the the Greek Cypriots got everything and the Turkish Cypriots nothing.

Somehow I think the Turks would have handled their economy more responsibly even though being a poorer nation. A bit too much Greek cockiness for my tastes.

And this from The

cmaukonen — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 01:31:36 +0000

In reply to Goodbye Euro ?

And this from The Guardian.

The inevitability of default is obvious from the numbers. Greece's interest costs are so large that any attempt to achieve a balanced budget while staying in the euro would kill demand in its economy, undermine tax receipts and cause more political and social upheaval. The eurozone leaders' reluctance to accept this is really unwillingness to confront the knock-on effects of default on holders of Greek debt.
But Charles Dumas of Lombard Street Research has a neat answer to the question of how banks would lose from a Greek default: "No more than they will anyhow is the correct answer, and probably less. Grinding Greek noses in the dust is almost certain to increase the present value of future losses." Dumas thinks Greece should quit the euro and call in the IMF, which, he suggests, would ensure that the Greek default is smaller by a few cents in the euro than it would otherwise be.
There is no mechanism for leaving the euro club, and nobody would pretend that the process would be straightforward. But the current eurozone strategy of lending ever-greater sums to Greece while demanding more austerity has run out of road. Investors do not believe it will produce a happy ending. It is hard to imagine the same investors will see profit in signing up for "voluntary" arrangements to extend the profile of Greek debt.
But investors may be more prepared to believe contagion can be contained if the eurozone gets serious about finding ways to support its banking system when the Greek debt crisis can no longer be deferred. Unfortunately, there are few signs so far that the politicians are ready to make the mental leap.

dagblog - Comments for "Goodbye Euro ?"

Here's a 90-day exchange rate

And this from The