Financial Crisis and Geopolitics

Cuando una crisis financiera se combina con una crisis económica, los Estados se ven obligados a inyectar dinero a paladas en la economía para salvar a los bancos, para pagar los subsidios de desempleo y en última instancia, si es necesario, para cavar zanjas y después volver a echar tierra sobre los agujeros para evitar una depresión, que en economía es una suerte de agujero negro. Después de eso suelen venir crisis fiscales: algunos países son incapaces de pagar la factura y van a la quiebra.

Knowing a bailout for Athens would be unpopular, Chancellor Angela Merkel wanted to postpone taking action on the Greek crisis until a key state election on May 9. But financial markets don't care about domestic German politics. Her delay could end up costing the country billions.

The current Greek crisis has shown all too starkly the limits of the euro zone's sanction and support mechanisms. If the monetary union is to have a future, it needs new rules to keep members in line and bail them out if necessary.

Many observers assign a large part of the blame for the 2008 financial crisis to the "big three" credit rating agencies, which gave their AAA seal of approval to worthless investments. Now those same agencies are helping to bring the euro zone to its knees -- and no one is trying to stop them.

Germany balked for weeks over a possible bailout for Athens. Now its delays are coming back to haunt it in the form of intense international criticism of Angela Merkel's crisis management.

When Chancellor Angela Merkel's current government came into power, Germany was just emerging from the economic crisis. But despite pledges to curb deficit spending, Merkel's administration has been running up debt at a record pace -- and bailing out Greece will only exacerbate the situation.

As the financial crisis in the euro zone worsens and the heads of the IMF and the ECB come to Berlin to persuade Germany to help Greece now, local commentators are calling for speed and decisiveness. As they see it, political jockeying before the May 9 election in North Rhine-Westphalia is no reason for German politicians to endanger the whole euro zone.

The Greeks are mainly responsible for their current predicament. But the German government has made the country's situation worse with its lectures and reluctance to provide assistance. Chancellor Angela Merkel is mainly to blame for the fact that German taxpayers now have to suffer.

S&P dice que la banca, "además de a las débiles perspectivas de la economía, se enfrenta a la excesiva concentración de riesgos en construcción y al sobredimensionamiento" del sector inmobiliario.

Crecimiento del PIB en 2010 y 2011.

La clasificación según S&P, Moody's y Fitch.

S&P rebaja la calificación a AA con perspectiva negativa - La Bolsa se hunde, pero la prima de riesgo resiste - El Gobierno cree que la rebaja tendrá un efecto limitado

La agencia de calificación deja la solvencia española en AA con perspectiva negativa. Las otras dos agencias, Fitch y Moody's, mantienen la máxima calificación para la deuda española.

European Union officials Wednesday were unable to mask their frustration with the downgrade of Greek debt by Standard & Poor's to junk status.

Add this to the list of reasons German taxpayers are unhappy about having to lend Greece money to ease its debt crisis: In effect, they already have.

As Greece inches closer to the brink of financial collapse, fear that the debt crisis will spread is engulfing Europe.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's strategy for dealing with Greece's untenable debt problem was to stall and hope the crisis did not demand action until after a critical state election in early May. On Wednesday, the clock finally ran out.

Europe will eventually grow tired of bailing out its weaker countries. The Germans will probably pull that plug first. The longer we wait to see fiscal probity established, at the European Central Bank and the European Union, and within each nation, the more debt will be built up, and the more dangerous the situation will get. When the plug is finally pulled, at least one nation will end up in a painful default; unfortunately, the way we are heading, the problems could be even more widespread.