Greece is the ‘canary in the gold mine’ and is emblematic of all the debt that western countries now have on its books and NO real way to pay the debt down or off. And this includes the USA. A total collapse isn’t out of the realm of possibilities. More and more economists have said as much since the Great Recession began and what the Great Recession brought to light was all the debt and financial chicanery used to prop up the GNP of most western nations, especially the USA.
It’s not Greeks who created the problem, but a systemic corruption of the upper echelon of politico-elites who abused the currency and created an overextended bureaucracy with way too many public employees who were handsomely rewarded for voting and maintaining the status quo…
A cycle which should have ended under the Euro but was maintained for a further decade via obfuscation and creative accounting.
Greece actually has a highly educated, highly skilled, competent workforce but the size of the public service sector and the compensation for what little work was asked of them + guaranteed employment made entrepreneurialism and business investment seem a waste of time.
Keep in mind, Greece is not alone in living in socialized nervina. In France, between holidays (five Bank holidays in May alone), the 35 hour work week, retirement at extremely early ages (in Germany the retirement age is now 67), and five to eight weeks of paid vacation, employers are paying huge costs for workers not to do work …
Ok, now let’s bring this around to real estate. One of the strongest real estate markets last year and this year, has been in the Metro Washington D.C. area. Why? It’s all the new handsomely rewarded government public employees! Yes …BIG government, BIG salaries, BIG retirement packages, all adding to our national debt.
I don’t know what will happen going forward but it won’t be pretty and there is only so long reality can be put off.
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