– Ben Davies: Greece Is Just A Preview Of What’s Coming For The Rest Of Us (ZeroHedge, Feb. 25, 2012):
All eyes are on Greece these days, with hopes the situation there can soon be resolved and the global recovery kicked into high gear.
Sadly, those hopes are misguided claims Ben Davies, CEO of Hinde Capital. In fact, he says, Greece’s pain foreshadows the future awaiting the rest of the world.
It all comes down to simple math. Greece has increased its debts at a rate far faster than its income has grown. At some point, the debt became so large that the country could no longer service it.
What makes the rest of the PIIGS immune from a similar fate? Or Japan? Or the US? Or the OECD, in general?
Nothing.
Yes, Greece had a smaller, shakier economy and doesn’t have a central bank to print its own currency at will like Japan or the US. But even those countries with a printing press learn that, after a certain point, expanding the money supply only complicates the problem of too much debt by inflating key economic input costs and dangerously weakening the currency.