Is This Greek Tragedy Finally About To End?

Posted by Nogger - a legend in his own mind at 11:43 | Categorized as

07/04/15 -- I see that the IMF chief (and unconvincing part-time trannie) Christine Lagarde says that she's chuffed to bits that Greece will be making full repayment on a EUR450 million debt due on Thursday.

If somebody owed me EUR460 million, and I was shitting myself that I wasn't going to get it back, then I think that I'd be rather chuffed too.

The thing is of course, saying it is one thing, doing it is entirely another. The Greek track record in telling the truth isn't great, after all.

Still, it's "only" EUR450 million, there are some much larger obstacles to overcome in the month of April.

I read over a leisurely Easter weekend that there's another EUR1.4 billion worth of Greek government bond debt falling due less than a week later (Apr 14), followed by a further similarly huge amount due on Apr 17. Where the hell are they going to find that from? (There's also the not insignificant estimated EUR1.7 billion worth of social security payments due to be made on Apr 14 as well).

The Greek PM is due in Russia tomorrow, and the timing of that meeting with Vlad the Bad may not be entirely co-incidental. But has Putin got that kind of cash lying around? Not at the moment I'd suggest.

This enormous Greek tragedy has been going on for almost 5 years now. Five bleeding years. Maybe it's time for it to end once and for all?

If we do finally get the "Grexit" that we've been talking about all this time, what does it mean for the euro? The market seems to think that finally getting rid of this lame duck would be a bonus, judged by recent modest euro strength, and who could blame it?