Greeks turn to the U.S. for regulation advice?
Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou will seek President Obama’s support at the White House on Tuesday for a European campaign to crack down on global financial speculation that critics say has exacerbated Europe’s worst debt crisis in decades.
No, we’re not making this up. So what does it mean? Is it a smokescreen? Signs of European class warfare and union-breaking ambitions?
Or is it political pandering? Perhaps the Greek government is just publicly claiming Washington as an ally to deflect the attention of their outraged citizens from themselves (those citizens were outraged enough a few weeks ago, you’ll recall, to bomb JP Morgan Chase’s office in Athens). Our friend Edward Harrison over at Credit Writedowns sees political machinations at the heart of this bid for aid (see his recent post).
As Marshall Auerback put it: “From Treasury to IMF…out of the frying pan into the fire! Unless George is talking to people at, say, the Levy Institute, UMKC or people like Rob Johnson, or Frank Partnoy, this isn’t going to help them much, is it? It’s akin to getting advice on sex addiction from a serial lech.”