5.04.2010

U.S. taxpayers to bail out Greece

The sagacious John Mauldin is not his usual mild self in his latest Outside the Box newsletter:
Let me start this week's Outside the Box by venting a little anger. It now looks like almost 30% of the Greek financing will come from the IMF, rather than just a small portion. And since 40% of the IMF is funded by US taxpayers, and that debt will be JUNIOR to current bond holders (if the rumors are true) I can't tell you how outraged that makes me.

What that means is that US (and Canadian and British, etc.) tax payers will be giving money to Greece who will use a lot of it to roll over old bonds, letting European banks and funds reduce their exposure to Greece while tax-payers all over the world who fund the IMF assume that risk. And does anyone really think that Greece will pay that debt back? IMF debt should be senior and no bank should be allowed to roll over debt and reduce their exposure to Greek debt on the back of foreign tax-payers.

I don't think I signed on for that duty. Why should my tax money go to help European banks? This is just wrong on so many levels and there is nothing seemingly we can do.

Welcome to Bailout Planet! And the Bailer of Last (and First) Resort is always the U.S. taxpayer.

Just to be fair, shouldn't Germany be bailing out California?

2 comments:

Negocios Loucos said...

The USA is not a democracy. It is an oligarchy controlled by the Fed.

....and we have always been at war with East Asia.

Cut and Shoot said...

...and California is too big to fail.

Happy Super Tuesday!