Finally! The Atlantic published an article titled “Blame the Banks” (written by a former banker), asking the question that I’ve been asking for a while. I keep hearing people accuse Greece of “reckless borrowing”. Why isn’t anyone accusing the banks of “reckless lending”?
It is also interesting to note that people keep talking about financial bailouts for the Greeks, when in reality these should be called financial bailouts for the banks.
Another case of “heads I win, tails you lose” for the banks?
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Another case of “heads I win, tails you lose” for the banks?
Pretty much.
The Greek’s idea of threatening to default to try and get a better deal was not a bad idea – it was just poorly timed.
You see, the once-privatelt owned (by banks and investors) Greeke debt has alreadt been sold to the IMF, ECB, and Euro governments back in 2011/2012. So with their possible losses socialized already, there threat of default was no threat at all to the Investor Class, so Greece was holding no chips.