Washington Times
September 16, 2011
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner hopped over the Atlantic to meet with his European counterparts Friday. Things are so desperate in the eurozone that the idea of a leveraged bailout fund, similar to the one used in the United States when it was hit by the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008, is on the table to address Europe’s ongoing financial crisis.
Such a scheme won’t help the Old World any more than it did the New. It’s just another short-term gimmick that postpones the inevitable and leaves long-term structural problems unaddressed. The bottom line is that European nations, most notably Spain, Portugal, Italy and Ireland, have been living beyond their means for decades, and the bills are due.
Greece is going bust. If the next tranche of bailout loot, worth $11 billion, is not released in October, the birthplace of democracy will not have money to pay bloated government salaries and pensions. European Union inspectors will be visiting Athens on Monday to satisfy themselves that deficit-cutting goals are being met before any of the funds are released.
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