How much longer until the US is where Greece is now?

Anyway, my guess is still that Greece will get emergency guarantees or loans that will delay default. But a year from now when Italy, Spain, Portugal and Ireland are in the same position, it will be very difficult to bail everyone out, so real defaults will happen in the end.

Thanks for all the informative posts-you provide-

I always appreciate your notes from Greece.

The country will have to default, one way or another, simply because the debt is too large to be paid back. This can be delayed through emergency loans, but then those are simply added to the debt balance.

The best thing would be to default right away and get it over with. The government would then not be able to borrow as much, and its interest would be higher, so it would be forced to fire lots of useless workers and lower the salaries of the rest.

The taxpayers would be better off because they would not have to pay higher rates to pay back the debt.

Default does not autmatically mean that Greece stops using the Euro. Why would it? Greece can choose to use any currency it wants: euros, dollars, drachmae, gold staters, whatever. Panama uses US dollars, Zimbabwe uses all kinds of currency, and FSU countries often use euros and dollars.

Anyway, I sure hope you default swiftly, but it doesn’t look like your politicians are going to do that. They are trying to get more loans and squeeze people dry, since the current status keeps them in power.

Best of luck,

Mike