Just as the former Bundesbank chief Axel Weber has finished saying that at some point Europe would have to consider restarting the system over the Greek debt problem, there are rumours that the BuBa (Bundesbank) has ordered the production of marks in case the Euro fails.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Mr Weber believes that Europe’s response to the Greek crisis has been too short sighted, with no real attempt to address the long term issues surrounding its mountain of debt.
Mr Weber made it clear that in his view there were few options. ‘Either a default or partial haircuts or a guarantee for the outstanding amount of Greek debt’ he said. ‘Governments have to decide which option they want to go for, but the current piecemeal approach of repeated aid programs inevitably leads to the latter solution’.
The ever Eurosceptic Express reports on the so far unsubstantiated rumours that have been circulating the ‘net for over a year that German marks are being printed in readiness in case the Euro fails, or Germany is forced by economics or politics to leave the single currency.
The Express cites two recent polls which show that 68% of Germans do not believe that the Greek bail out would work, 75% of them doubted that the Euro has a future and over half thought that Greece should be ejected from the Euro.
The trouble is that bailing out Greece again may be more than the German voter can stomach, leading to internal calls for Germany to pull out. Or Greece may just default and crumble out of the picture. Either route would sound the death knell for any European single currency of note.
For the rest of us, a failure to sort the Greece problem out properly once and for all may mean another much more severe credit crunch.
