June 24, 2011

Greek bankruptcy can be like "G.M.," instead of Lehman Brothers

Speculative article at The New York Times by by Rob Cox and Richard Beales:

"Investors fixated on the possibility that a Greek default would deliver a shock akin to the Lehman Brothers collapse in 2008 might want to consider another analogy. A restructuring of Greece’s obligations could more closely resemble the orderly wind-down of General Motors. The carmaker’s bankruptcy filing didn’t cause the market or economic Armageddon that followed Lehman’s demise.

...If European policy makers want a Greek bankruptcy to end up like a G.M. nonevent rather than a Lehman-style catastrophe, the main lesson is they need to prepare. They’ve certainly had lots of time. The snag is that they’ve squandered it. "

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