The Greek parliament today passed the latest round of so-called austerity measures in an attempt to soothe the international community's concerns about their ability to repay the latest rounds of bail-out loans.
"International community" in this case seems to mean mainly the Germans. There are a number of banks in Germany that are going to have some difficulties in the event Greece defaults on her sovereign debt.
There are of course a large number of opportunistic investment banks and hedge funds in America that have been buying up Greek debt at a steep discount and now clamor for the Greeks to pay up.
That's a pretty sweet deal, when you think about it. You buy Greek government bonds at forty cents on the dollar and within the year blackmail the Greek government into paying back the face value. That's certainly going to top up the bonus pool at Goldman Sachs next year.
And the folks paying those bonuses, the working poor and the pensioners in Greece, will have absolutely no say in the matter beyond the sporadic street protests we've seen so far.
But global markets went up today, so I guess it's all good.
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