PIIGS in trouble – VIDEO

Greek Bailout Already Making Situation Worse

The $146 billion bailout package approved this weekend for Greece is advertised as a move to “stop the worst crisis in the [euro]’s 11-year history,” but it is having exactly the opposite effect.

Tim Cavanaugh outlines five reasons why:

1. First, the bailout, which effectively kicks Greece’s pending default forward, has not solved the problem that the cost of debt service for the PIIGS countries is increasing.
2. while German Chancellor Angela Merkel is taking credit for bringing in International Monetary Fund support and forcing some tougher fiscal-cleanup conditions on Greece, the bailout does not address the counterproductive elements in Greece’s own so-called austerity package, including currency controls and cash-transaction limitations that will only slow the country’s economy.
3. the move has only irritated German and French voters who are outraged at having to pay for the wastrelsy of a country that, it is now clear, should never have been a euro participant in the first place.
4. the status of the euro itself has been undermined, not strengthened, by the bailout.
5. As they have shown throughout this crisis, Greece’s strong and ancient socialist institutions can only respond to market discipline with violence.

Go read the rest of the post.

Bailouts don’t work: Greece’s Costs Exceed Bailout:

And yes, I know that PIIGS Not Kosher at Barclays Capital; now say “Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain” fast three times.