Well, Hello Drachma!

In January I started to say that we should stop calling it the quotGreek Debt Crisisquot and start talking about it being the potential death rattle of the Euro In August I suggested a 3060 chance the Euro would collapse A couple of weeks ago when the quotEuro solutionquot was widely trumpeted in the media people who knew of my view of the situation sent me links about it Not so fast I said This is not the final answer it is a temporary delay of inevitable further mass meetings of politicians to try to save face There was no solution there just an agreement to move forward and hope to arrive at oneI have long suggested that the Eurozone should allow Greece to become the thirdworld country it seems to want to become When was the last time the terms quotinnovationquot quotstrong work ethicquot or quotgrowth economyquot were accurately used in the same sentence as quotGreecequot In a country where 10 of the work force is employed by the government where tax avoidance is an embedded cultural practice where the threehour lunch is common in spite of a 247 global economy what were the Europeans thinking They weren39tEach time Greek debt repayment guidelines and economic metrics have been set forth they have always turned out to be no longer valid Greece is in a downward economic spiral and there is clearly no way the massive amount of accumulated debt can be repaid in the foreseeable future The Greek people know this There is no question the Greeks lied to get into the Eurozone lied about their government budgets and then lied about their ability to make rapid changes to their economy to repay the debt they received through their deception and the greed of the European banksThe answer has been clear for months To avoid the real threat of a financial contagion that spreads to Italy and Spain the plutocrats spending hours negotiating should have done the obvious They should have stated that since Greece was clearly in violation of all terms so far negotiated they were being jettisoned from the Eurozone AND they should have indicated that the dramatic increase in funds to prop up the region was being redeployed to erect a firewall around Italy and Spain Cut the losses stop contagion in its tracks and get on with fortifying the banking systemThe Greek government with loud demonstrations and strikes a weekly occurrence briefly floated the idea that the Greeks should vote on whether to accept the onerous terms of debt repayment amp8211 which will ultimately destroy their economy in the name of protecting the banks amp8211 or returning to the drachma and suffering some shortterm severe pain for longterm growth and independence what do you think they would have done Why shouldn39t the Greeks vote for selfrule rather than imposed rule of other countries primarily interested in preserving their banks So once again the can has been kicked down the road the markets swoon in reaction and we are left with a situation that will only worsen and drag out the miseryThe old guard amp8211 in age and thinking amp8211 that architected the Eurozone would not accept reality More than two years ago internal IMF reports said that Greece was effectively bankrupt Instead of dealing with that reality then and there they made all worship at the altar of devotion to the Euro above all else Now two years later there is more indebtedness that has had the effect of both spiraling the Greek economy into severe recession and also putting the banks of Europe amp8211 and therefore the global economy at great riskWhat we are seeing here is the legacy thinking of the 20th century keeping European leaders from facing the financial realities of the 21st century What sounded like a noble idea amp8211 unifying a continent to better compete with the United States and the emerging China amp8211 was born from a late20th century world view That is still valid The problem was thinking the next step amp8211 a single currency amp8211 would be manageable Rules for membership and debt levels were legislated and then universally ignored for the sake of the vision of an evergrowing Eurozone By not seeing clearly by not enforcing the rules set forth the leaders of the Eurozone find themselves in an untenable situation They can hold on to a vision that no longer works and force the entire Eurozone into a halfdecade of nogrowth due to massive deleveraging or they can move swiftly to jettison Greece shore up Italy and Spain accept downgraded credit ratings for a couple of years and emerge in 2013 with something that could in fact be a powerful economic and financial forceSometimes dire situations necessitate humor While this clip is humorous the numbers are basically accurate Truth in humorDavid Houle is a futurist strategist and speaker He has always been slightly ahead of the curve Houle spent more than 20 years in media and entertainment Most recently David is a featured contributor to Oprahcom Check is out here wwwoprahcomdavidhoule David can be contacted at DavidDavidHoulecomRead all Davidamp8217s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Evolution ShiftCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBloggerThe opinions and points of view expressed in this commentary are exclusively the views of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of MediaBizBloggerscom management or associated bloggers MediaBizBloggers is an open thought leadership platform and readers may share their comments and opinions in response to all commentaries

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