Greece is buried in debt and must slash its spending and heavily tax its people or its economy will crash, taking jobs, homes and peoples' savings with it.
In a last ditch effort to avoid this dire fate, Greece is trying to raise money by selling bonds but for now there are few buyers, for a crash will destroy the value of those bonds. Their newest bond offering has been postponed.
They are pleading with the European Union and the German government, along with numerous banks, to lend them money or to guarantee their bonds, promising to cut spending sharply and raise taxes on their people. But if they get these loans, it will only briefly postpone the inevitable and if they do what they are promising lenders, the Greek people may riot and bring down the government.
How did they get into such a mess? By spending money they didn't have on a grand scale, some of it done secretly. Rather than confront their problems, they tried to borrow and spend their way out of them. To make matters worse, they have a vast number of people holding government jobs, or working for government contractors, all at taxpayer expense.
If this seems like what the U.S. does, except in Greece on a far smaller scale, it is. The difference for now is investors still have confidence in the U.S., something as the Greeks are seeing, can disappear in a heart beat.
What can the Greek people do? Currently they are demonstrating against any cut backs in government spending. But invariably, our Greek brethren will be forced to endure intense hardship, as spending is slashed, taxes are raised and jobs, homes and savings are lost.
As this happens, Greek consumers will cut their spending, causing firms, restaurants and retailers to lose enormous amounts of business which will force them to lay-off more people.
The alternative is for the Greek government to print money it doesn't have but that will result in hyper-inflation, which will ultimately bring the same hardships as the people are robbed of their money's value.
What is its impact on you?
If your nation is in the European Union, brace yourself as the Greeks desperately plead for a massive bailout. But that's just the start. Not only does Greece have dire financial problems, so do Portugal, Ireland, Italy and Spain.
If you are English, your government too has spent itself far beyond its means and continues to spend as the pound sterling is sharply falling. Brace yourself for the fate the Greeks face.
If you are American, your government has by far done more of this reckless spending than anyone else and is still doing it! The government tells you the Recession is over, and has the statistics to prove it.
But the government is still borrowing money at record levels, continues to prop up the real estate market with tax benefits, artificially low interest rates, and easy to obtain, low down payment (as low as 3.5%) financing on non-jumbo home mortgages.
It is preventing the buyers of most mortgages, known as "Fannie" and "Freddie" from foreclosing on millions of defaulted mortgages to keep this vast number of homes out of the marketplace.
And between 15 and 20 million American people are unemployed.
As Europe's financial problems mushroom, there will be little money available for the U.S. government to borrow. And when the American crash comes it will be a doozy. It won't happen tomorrow but it will happen soon.*
As for Greece, the European Union is determined to calm investors and assure them the situation is under control. It is not. We may have a brief quiet period before it rears its ugly head again.
Where ever you are in the world, prepare yourself, for our Greek brethren's fate will become our fate. Educate yourself so that you have greater skills to offer employers and if possible, specialize in fields that will remain in demand such as medical care, money management, tax accounting and law enforcement.
Most important, learn to live with less, share what you have with others and enjoy each precious day. Seek inspiration in nature, in music, in uplifting writings and in other meaningful choices. Build loving relationships and bring happiness to others for it is all of these things and not money, that are really what life is about.
Dick (last updated, 3/2/10)
*Predicting these unprecedented in magnitude events is not difficult. The exact timing can be elusive because government efforts to fight these dire circumstances vary. But sadly, like the Titanic, the financial ice berg has been hit and these global economies will sink.
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