Finland has started a new trend by demanding collateral from Greece for the money that it will contribute to the Greek bailout. After Finland struck its deal with Greece, Austria, the Netherlands, Slovakia, and Slovenia followed suit, demanding their own collateral. Greece apparently has no more islands it can hock as collateral, so it will be required to put up a cash deposit. However, since it has no money of its own, it will probably have to borrow the money from… the European bailout fund.
Yes, things really have gotten that weird in Europe.
In other news, at least one of the aftershocks following today’s Louisa County (Virginia) earthquake registered 4.8 on the Richter scale, according to updated measurements.
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Since societies are a consequence of the people inhabiting them, it is when the people are broken that societies break, not vice versa. Author of the article is on a good lead, just needs to get perspective right is all.
Businesses in the Eurozone who export to the rest of the Eurozone do not want the south splitting off, and thereby having their new currency decline against the Euro. It would hurt their business.
This thing is more complicated than it looks, in terms of people’s preferences. They need to get some economists studying how much of a benefit the common currency is for the northern countries. I have not seen anything like that, I read WSJ and The Economist.