Beware of Greeks Selling Bonds
The sum of these various factors is that the shadow of debt hanging over the global economy is more severe than it was in 1929. The threat is heightened by the fact that this time, 80 years later, it is not only the American authorities that are attempting to fight the contraction with aggressive fiscal and monetary policy, the European and Asian authorities are doing so as well. … This increasing inability to spend next week’s money today is exactly what is now beginning to be observed in the Treasury auctions around the world, as more and more national governments are finding it difficult to sell the debt that underlies their currencies.
– Vox Day, “The Return of the Great Depression”
While I have long predicted the collapse of the euro and eventually the European Union, I have to admit that Greece was not even on the periphery of my radar as a potential economic flashpoint. I examined the various economies of Europe in some detail while writing “The Return of the Great Depression,” and based on the incredible amounts of debt incurred by numerous countries during the real-estate boom of the last decade, it was clear there were a number of likely candidates for sovereign debt default.