Bast*rd Yankers.

Sounds like Bankers, geddit?!

Back on October 27th 2011 EU leaders agreed to allow Greece to voluntarily default on 50% of it's debt. Today (13/1/12) Greece has been meeting with it's creditors to negotiate the exact terms of that default. Those negotiations have ground to a halt because if the default is voluntary then the creditor's loan insurance - the infamous Credit Default Swaps (CDS) - doesn't pay out. As a result the creditors are now trying to push the nation into an involuntary default so they don't lose any money on their bad investment.

As US banks aren't really that exposed to Greek debt but are quite heavily exposed to CDS's I think it's time for the White House to have a word. After all it doesn't matter how much pressure Standard & Poor's put on the Euro it's simply not going to collapse. So all we're actually talking about is whether a wide range of mainly European banks will take a small loss or whether a narrow group of US banks take a big loss giving the US economic recovery a giant kick in the face in the middle of an election year.