Hedge Fund Manager sees US becoming Greece

[ochotona]

{BTW - Greece now, 14 years later, has a budget SURPLUS...}

"Maybe you forget Grexit, the nickname given to Greece's multi-year financial crisis in the mid-2010s. It had many people, investors and governments worried the small nation would be forced to withdraw from the European Union.

It was a big deal at the time. Greece was a financial and economic mess because government spending was far greater tax revenue. It caused financial outlets to devote many, many column inches or many, many broadcast minutes debating what might happen if Greece was tossed from the European Union."

https://www.thestreet.com/investing/hed ... ing-greece

[Smith1776]

Yeah, I remember... there were suicides reported in the news over their citizens' feelings of economic hopelessness.

[dualstow]

I just remember author Michael Lewis saying they behaved (financially) “like pigs.”

[glennds]

I remember that there were traders that made a fortune buying up Greek debt when it was heavily discounted during the crisis. Those (risky) bets turned out to be a reverse version of the famous Big Short stories of people who bet against the US housing market in 2006. Fortunes were made.

So from the thread title, you wonder if the PP rebalancing strategy will force adherents to buy Treasuries when they are out of favor, which will later prove to be a phenomenal trade?

[dualstow]

I happened to read about the Greek crisis in Nadav Eyal’s book on troubles from globalization.
The author spent a huge amount of time in the country as his father ran a small business there.
It was like what Glennds said. A lot of traders profited.

Additionally, the Greek government sent misleading figures back to French and German associates in the EU, making it look like Greece wasn’t over the crucial 3% in debt vs GDP. The loans flowed.
The EU didn’t really invest in Greece so much as flood them with money with the hope that it would flow back to them.
When the crisis hit, it became apparent that the real debt was more like 15%.

I’m glad they’re doing better now.