Word: defaults
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...many credit cards, and often pile up more bills than they can handle. Argentina, Russia, Mexico and others have stiffed their bankers over the past 30 years. In fact, the sovereign-debt crisis goes back as far as the concept of the sovereign state. The first recorded government default took place in the 4th century B.C., when Greek municipalities failed to pay back loans granted by a temple. (Read "The Party's Over for Spendthrift Greeks...
...Perhaps, then, it's only fitting that Greek government debt is the biggest threat to global financial stability today. Warning that Greece was in "critical condition," Prime Minister George Papandreou recently said that his country "faces the risk of sinking under its debt." Jitters over a potential Greek default have punished the value of Europe's common currency, the euro, and driven down stock markets around the world. Policymakers worry that Greece's woes will spread to other weaker members of the euro zone, such as Portugal, Ireland, Italy and Spain - a collection of countries traders have nicknamed the PIIGS...
...While euro-zone nations use the same currency, there is no mechanism in place to financially aid wayward members. That's how a crisis in Greece, which represents a mere 2.8% of the zone's GDP, can have such an outsized impact. The ultimate fear is that Greece will default, dragging down the euro with it. "A lot of the euro's problems today are rooted in those members having failed to integrate enough," says Bob Hancké, a professor of European political economy at the London School of Economics. "I'm one of those people who can imagine there...
...systems and for this reason place the entire economic system and currency at risk. Greece’s current fiscal situation, in which the government is struggling immensely to pay the bills and teetering on the edge of financial collapse, is a prime example of this, as a Greek default could create a dangerous run on the Euro, which would negatively affect all of Europe because of the united monetary policy. And Spain, Portugal, Ireland, and Italy unfortunately are not far behind when it comes to rapidly approaching fiscal crises...
...quite World War III, but tension over Greece's debt crisis has ignited a battle of words between Athens and Berlin, reopening old wounds and raising the specter of Nazism. As Greece struggles to avoid default, and Germans debate whether to bail out their spendthrift neighbor, the question of what, if anything, Germany owes Greece for the past has become a topic of bitter debate and angry mutterings in the southern European nation. The row began with a tongue-in-cheek magazine cover in the German magazine Focus. The Venus de Milo - known by Greeks as the Aphrodite for Milos...