Mohamed A. El-Erian: A significant amount of potentially unpayable Greek debt has been transferred from private creditors to public balance sheets underpinned by European taxpayers.

Mohamed A. El-Erian,  Bloomberg  25 May 2015

Many of these private entities had been paid handsomely for their willingness to take on the sovereign credit risk of Greece and, thanks to generous bailout funding from the official sector, quite a few have been able to exit without much cost.

Failing to see much sustainable improvement, Greek citizens have been pulling their cash out of banks. This has contributed to wider capital flight that sucks operating oxygen out of the country’s economy and puts a growing number of institutions at risk of bankruptcy.


Full text

Nobody was forced to lend to Greece. 

Initially, private lenders were happy to lend to the Greek government on much the same terms as to the German government. 

Then, in 2010, it became clear the money would not be repaid. 

Rather than agree to the write-off that was needed, governments (and the International Monetary Fund) decided to bail out the private creditors by refinancing Greece.

Martin Wolf, FT 21 April 2015


Mohamed El-Erian om varför centralbankerna kör nollränta
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