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Ponzi scheme runs out of suckers

Euro Defaults Loom as National Ponzi Schemes ‘Run Out of Suckers’: Books

Countries don’t go bankrupt, said Walter Wriston, the legendary boss of what is now Citigroup Inc. (C)After all, he reasoned, they “own” more than they “owe.”
They do have a habit of reneging on their loans, though, as Citi learned the hard way when Argentina and more than a dozen other nations defaulted in the 1980s.

Western governments are now poised to repeat that ignoble history, be it through outright default or inflating their debt away, says Philip Coggan in “Paper Promises,” a crisply written look at how the debt crisis may overturn the global economic order.
“The massive debts accumulated over the last 40 years can’t be paid in full, and they won’t be paid,” Coggan says.“The debt crises of Greece, Ireland and Portugal are just the start.”
With its aging populations and overstretched budgets, the West’s “Ponzi scheme is running out of suckers,” he says. Put that in your longer-term refinancing pipe and toke it.
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Comment: When the dollar standard is gone it is not guaranteed that China will deliver.