Why everyone should worry about Greece [via The Economist]

SHOOT: Perhaps the clamour about Greece has faded into a vague cliche by now, something to do with the words debt, default, Euro and currency. Sounds pretty harmless right? The Economist doesn't think so, hence the number of covers dedicated to a serious, and worsening financial mess in Europe. For reference, the European bloc of countries represents the world's largest trading bloc, it's GDP exceeds the USA. If the Euro fails, the world financial system collapses. It's that simple, and that terrible, and thus far, only platitudes are being used to defend against the rising tide of financial apocalypse.

May 1st 2010 The Greek debt crisis is spreading. Europe needs a bolder, broader solution—and quickly

 July 10th 2010 Yes: the European Union will thrive if its leaders seize the moment in the same way they did 20 years ago

 November 20th 2010 Ireland’s woes are largely of its own making but German bungling has made matters worse

December 4th 2010 The euro is proving horribly costly for some. A break-up would be even worse

 

January 15th 2011 The euro area’s bail-out strategy is not working. It is time for insolvent countries to restructure their debts

 March 12th 2011 This may be remembered as the week Europe began to split apart. One woman could stop that

 June 25th 2011 The opportunity for Europe’s leaders to avoid disaster is shrinking fast

 

July 16th 2011 By engulfing Italy, the euro crisis has entered a perilous new phase—with the single currency itself now at risk

 September 17th 2011 It requires urgent action on a huge scale. Unless Germany rises to the challenge, disaster looms

 October 1st 2011 Unless politicians act more boldly, the world economy will keep heading towards a black hole

 

October 29th 2011 This week’s summit was supposed to put an end to the euro crisis. It hasn’t

 

November 5th 2011 The markets are not the euro’s only threat. Voters may be too

November 26th 2011 Unless Germany and the ECB move quickly, the single currency’s collapse is looming.

The Economist in January:  If no deal is in place by March 20th, when a big bond payment is due, Greece will be pushed into a chaotic default, which would increase the risk that the country is forced out of the euro. That is a frightening prospect. The ensuing chaos and contagion could fell the single currency, not least because Europe’s governments have made little progress on building a “firewall” around countries like Italy and Spain.

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