Sunday, June 14, 2015

Greece - Watching A Socialist Country Collapse

Greece owes creditors billions of Euros that it cannot pay.  This is a Socialist country that for years paid public employees significantly higher compensation and benefits than their economy could support.  After all, Greece manufacturers and exports practically nothing worth buying.  Bloated government spending has resulted in perpetual borrowing, rather than biting the bullet and either laying off public employees and or reducing their pensions and other benefits, which always led to riots.   Creditors have said Enough by refusing to restructure Greece's debt because Greece's newly elected Socialist government refuses to make the cuts in government spending necessary to get Greece back on a track toward fiscal sanity. 

At some point soon, Greece will default and be thrown out of the European Union.  That means no more Euro and back to a Greek currency that will be worthless.  No doubt, European governments will have to bail out their banks that are very exposed to this Greek Debt.  Fortunately, on this one, American banks are not too exposed; though since we live in a global economy, whenever any economic block, in this case the EU is negatively impacted, there will be a ripple effect that is difficult to predict.

Most important, though Greece is a relatively small economy, as this Socialist country collapses, we will see what can happen when the balloon burst.  Expect Civil Strife on their streets, a rush on the banks, very high inflation and interest rates, the potential for Marshal Law and probable food lines.   History is our teacher.   We have seen this story before in Weimar Germany before Hitler and more recently with the break up of the Soviet Union. 

Don't think it can't happen in the United States.  Our National Debt, now at $18 Trillion and growing with no end in sight, is about 120% of our GDP.  That means we owe more than we are producing every year.  We too are reaching an unsustainable Debt Level, yet Socialists in government and Hillary Clinton, running for the Presidency, keep calling for more entitlements, when the current ones are not even sustainable.  Providing for the 50% of Americans that pay no income taxes at all may help Socialists win elections, but one day the balloon will burst because the Makers in society, those of us that pay the 50% of all income taxes in our country and most other fees and taxes to local, state and federal government, cannot carry the load any longer.  There isn't enough wealth in the country, even if all of it was confiscated, to cover all the unfunded liabilities that currently exist, let alone new ones.  Watch Greece to see our story in the making.  As goes a bankrupt Greece, will go a bankrupt United States, only worse. 

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