Greece has already defaulted, if you note the March 2012 debt deal which required private creditors (95% agreed) to take a greater than 50% haircut on their debt, and by doing so trigger an umpteenth bailout of €130bn from the International Monetary Fund (aka USA), European Monetary Union (aka Germany – with its sidekick, France) and the European Central Bank (aka Bundesbank or the German Central Bank). So why is it that we are not able to stop talking about it or the European Monetary Union? When Latin and Central America defaulted in the 1980s, that region was about 10% of World GDP of that time. Yet, it didn't seem to affect capital and trade flows the same way as the Eurozone Debt Crisis seems to be worrying the world today. And keep in mind that the PIIGS nations today, Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece and Spain are fully not more than about 8% of total Global GDP, primarily because Europe and other Developed nations are a much smaller % of Global GDP with the growth of emerging markets, notably, China. Here's the twist in the tale, however, The lower quality European debtors enjoy one special advantage over their Latin American compatriots: South Europe and Ireland enjoy the “implicit guarantee” of its partners France and Germany, since their debt was not just issued in Euros, but also within the framework of the European Monetary Union.
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