http://news.forexlive.com/!/ecb-sai...nt-debt-holdings-if-talks-break-down-20150219 Bye, bye, Greece!
Just curious, but how is that a problem? If Greece decides to default, they'll default on that debt too - they won't care if the banks try to sell it. In fact, that just might edge them closer to choosing default.
Seems the the further Greece goes from any deal the higher the world markets go, at this point Greece doesn't matter and never did, so I don't know why this is news anymore, its played out, enough about greece, everyone wants to talk about NASDAQ 5000!!!!!
Nah, these are mostly t-bills that the Greek banks own, so it's not a default concern. Essentially, if true, the ECB, in its regulatory capacity, will ensure that, if negotiations fail, Greece has no wiggle room. It's just another message sent by the European authorities to the Greek govt that, basically, "it's my way or the high way".
I still don't see how this affects Greece. If they default, you're saying they'd still honor this debt? If they leave the EU, aren't they done with the ECB in any case?
Countries don't default on t-bills, normally. T-bills are sacrosanct, in most cases. The whole point, I think, is precisely that they want the new Greek govt to know that, if they fail to agree, there will be no alternative to Grexit, since all sorts of bad things will happen. Just so the Greeks have no illusions that they could drag the whole negotiation out some more...
I guess we have to define what "money" is in your argument. There may be Drachmas for the t-bills, but there won't be any Euros in a Grexit.
Yeah, it could be Drachma, but any normal government also has sufficient cash to deal with t-bill redemptions. Furthermore, the government can always force the banks to roll t-bills and this is precisely the loophole that the ECB is trying to close.