Greece, Euro

It's a funny thing, having feet on two continents. I read the BBC news most days, as well as a quick look on the CBC.

This whole thing with Greece.. it's a question of fairness, isn't it? Who has caused Greece to go so catastrophically under water - and why, rather like a drunk being forcefed whisky, are the Major European Powers trying to get Greece to take on more and more debt?

Self interest, obviously. And that's sad. It seems to me that Germany and France's governments are trying really hard to make sure their banks, that lent irresponsibly and caused Greece's problems (in part - the Greeks are of course partially to blame as well, but the banks should have measured the risk more carefully), are protected.

The banks are commercial entities. They are companies. Structures, legal entities - not people. The people running the banks were greedy/sheep and eventually turned out to be lemmings... except that their respective governments don't want them to actually die.

Perhaps, rather than foist further unrepayable debts onto the Greek people, the sovereign governments should buy the current debts from their own banks and write them off (in exchange for a stake in the banks in question).

Effect: Greek debt is smaller and more plausible - and so recovery more likely. The banks in question are less exposed to dodgy debt. The governments have more leverage with their banks.

Everyone wants to get their money back but the problem is that money didn't exist in the first place.