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Feel like wading into the economic weeds again?
Heather Stewart re-examines the Argentine default...when Buenos Aires drew a dangerous but ultimately successful bright line default...as a possible model for Greece.
"It was a successful default,"says leftist USA economist Weisbrot. "Their economy reached the post-crisis level of output within three years, which is going to take Greece 10 years if they're lucky. They took 11 to 12 million people out of poverty in that time."
"The parallels are really striking," says IMF and World Bank monitor Peter Chowla. "Argentina had an IMF loan, which required austerity, and it failed for more than a year, and then they decided to double down, give them another loan and demand more austerity."
AND: Are the bond vigilantes now focusing again on Italy?
Its bond spreads vs Germany are greater than ever...and investors are disturbed by the growing rift between Berlusconi and FinMin Giulio Tremonti. Tremonti has refused to approve new tax cuts.
Also...Germany may be pushing again for investors to swap current Greek bonds for new debt with longer maturities.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/11/business/global/italy-becoming-a-bigger-priority-for-euro-zone.html
