Hold the celebration on Greek vote

Washington Post
Editorial
June 22, 2011

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou’s government has survived a confidence vote in parliament, albeit narrowly. Therefore Greece can still beat a mid-July deadline for enacting structural reforms in return for $17 billion in fresh loans from solvent European countries and the International Monetary Fund. Without the money, Greece would default on its debt. With the money, Greece, the European banks that so improvidently loaned it billions of euros, and the euro itself will survive — at least until the next crisis.

Should Americans be celebrating? Certainly it’s no cause for joy that U.S. taxpayer money is on the line, too, in the form of the U.S. share of a three-year, $42 billion IMF package for Greece. Nor has the United States avoided all spillover from Europe’s troubles to date. As the Wall Street Journal has reported, many U.S. municipal bond issuers already face higher interest payments because of concerns about the European bank that guaranteed the bonds and also loaned $6.3 billion to Greece.

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