Back in September, I wrote about the Greek stock market. I pointed out that widespread pessimism, low expectations, and attractive valuation created an easy hurdle for an upside surprise. Since then Greece has been on fire, up over 35%! But despite an increase in price, the Greek market P/E has actually fallen from 4.7x down … Continue reading Greece on Fire
Much ink has been spilled over Greece's financial woes. And if you've followed the headlines, you might think Greek lightning was burning Athens to the ground. While it's true that Greece's finances have been woefully mismanaged (it has the second highest Debt/GDP ratio in the world), in absolute terms things may not be as … Continue reading Greek Lightning Strikes
It's been over five years since Greece's current financial crisis started making public headlines. Since then Greece has received more than 240 billion Euros of bailout loans from the ECB, the IMF, and the EU (aka the "Troika"). That figure doesn't include the "phantom" aid that Greece also received in the form of the debt … Continue reading Big Trouble in Little Athens, Revisted
This morning Euro Zone policymakers announced an agreement where certain private investors (mainly banks and insurance companies) would take 50% haircuts on their holdings of Greek debt. This is basically a managed default. And though it runs totally contrary to what policymakers were promising earlier this year (aka that Greece would not default), it really should have been expected. Back … Continue reading Old Euro Dogs
Greece has received a lot of publicity since its financial problems surfaced last year. And yet it seems like many people still don't think Greece's problems are all that important. For example, last week I heard a popular financial radio host basically ridicule the notion that Greece's financial issues could affect America. His reasoning was that Greece's economy is tiny compared to the Eurozone or the … Continue reading Big Trouble in Little Athens
The Bellwether Blog 