Going broke, the odds are in

The financial markets at this moment gives us the probabilities on countries defaulting.  The top 10 candidates are:

1. Greece
   86.58%
2. Portugal
   58.79%
3. Venezuela
   50.46%
4. Pakistan
   48.55%
5. Ireland
   46.79%
6. Argentina
   46.48%
7. Ukraine
   41.00%
8. Italy
   35.82%
9. Hungary
   31.06%
10. Spain
    29.16%

The PIIGS are all in the top 10.  Otherwise it would be disappointing.   To people who love to be at the top of lists.  The presence on this one is no reason for pride.  The company neither.

Here is an interesting article from the University of Liverpool:  Greece and the risk of contagion to the rest of the Eurozone.  Not exactly comforting reading considering the historical perspective

To the Expresso (portuguese newspaper) journalist, who tries to show that the English acronym for Portugal, Ireland, Italy, Greece and Spain is GIIPS:  Good try.  Unfortunately it is PIIGS, even more unfortunate, deservedly so.

Excerpt from the blog: Stock Market Today - European debt crisis: dark clouds to destroy City Buildings, an essay worth while a read in spite of the poor English (machine translated?).

state failure

PIIGS five countries in the face of the euro area debt crisis, the government is often slow to respond, response inadequate. In the state of electoral politics, has gradually taken shape in a time when the debt crisis, political parties and those in power to pursue short-term interests, often in the general election and opinion polls to please, to fool people. For example, the Greek government in 2009 before the last hiding a lot of deficit. Continue to ferment in the occasion of the debt crisis, the relevant national government often hold “step by step” mentality, too timid, failed to deter the debt crisis in the bud. For example, the Italian government deficit reached 5.3% in 2009 did not take decisive action, but blindly delay, leading to the current escalation of the crisis situation. When a crisis is approaching, the state has survived the dangerous move misconduct, leading to deterioration of the situation. For example, Ireland, Spain and other countries initially laissez-faire domestic economic bubble, the bubble burst, they spend a lot of taxpayer wealth to aid the virtual economy, leading to the economic situation worse.