Greek tragedy can’t be averted by endless debt deferment

As

2013 begins, the Greek debt crisis continues. In December, the Greek government began restructuring its debt for the second time this year.

“Restructuring” may sound clean and clinical. It isn’t. Greece couldn’t meet its debt payment requirements so its lenders agreed to a new repayment schedule. Occasionally the term “selective default” appears when restructuring occurs. Finance ministers and Treasury secretaries will tell you the term is just credit rating agency lingo, so don’t let it scare you. In fact, Greek Finance Minister Evangelos Venizelos said exactly that right after Greece began restructuring: “The word ‘selective default’ scares without reason. It is not a real event; it is not default.”

But if you live and work and pay bills on Main Street, and know that one plus one equals two on Main Street, and ultimately the basic math is the same on Wall Street and in Athens as well, you might not share the finance minister’s confidence. Selective default means some lenders get paid now, others later, other others still later. Maybe. For creditors at the end of the line, usually those who lack the political clout to get paid first, all they’ve got is a promise.

J. Wellington Wimpy, the gluttonous, globular straight man who appears in old “Popeye the Sailor” cartoons, is a character from another entertainment era, the 1930s. That decade has resonance for 21st-century Greece, the eurozone, and every other nation racking up debt: The 1930s were the worst years of the Great Depression. Wimpy loves hamburgers, an amour which leads to his signature line: “I’ll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today.”

The line, a diner’s hustle, neatly captures the risk of lending to any individual or national entity who spends lent money to pay for immediate needs. Wimpy eats his burger today. Then comes Tuesday — goodness, he’s hungry again. “Shall we,” a not so theoretical 21st-century Wimpy asks, so sincerely, “restructure the debt? Until next Tuesday? And I’ll need to eat, in order to survive, so that I may pay you. So ...”

Greece isn’t a cartoon, it’s a tragedy. The people of Greece have suffered, and their suffering could get much worse. Extremist political leaders prey on understandable public anger. Violent protests plague Greek cities. Terrorist threats, made in the name of economic justice and national identity, are daily fare. Old-line Communists, still active in Greek labor unions, have made political gains. Greece now sports its own neo-Nazi party. Greek Nazis advocate socialist economic populism and Greek ultranationalism — in other words, national socialism. The Nazis took power in Depres- sion-ridden Germany.

The Greek people, however, also bear the major burden of responsibility for their ongoing tragedy. Greek governments repeatedly cooked the books when they reported their annual deficits to fellow eurozone members. Greek governments repeatedly violated fiscal agreements and borrowed money they could not repay. They flat lied. Greek voters elected the governments, and, like Wimpy, enjoyed the immediate benefits. Basic math, and time, have exposed the lies.

Main Street knows the truth: Greek debt is unsustainable. America isn’t as deeply in debt as Greece. However, America’s own structural debt is the biggest strategic threat the U.S. faces. It is already eroding America’s military power. Softpower advocates had better pay attention. The debt is also eroding America’s economic, diplomatic and cultural power to influence and persuade.

Last week, Standard and Poor’s credit analysts raised Greece’s debt rating to a B-. S&P concluded that the latest restructuring effort, combined with more budget cuts and the arrival of about $49 billion worth of euros in credit meant that Greece was no longer in selective default. Greece touted the rating’s boost as an encouraging sign. And it is, at least until next Tuesday.

More than two months after the American-Statesman detailed how hundreds of Texas veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan have died since coming home — and the government’s failure to adequately track them — the Department of Veterans Affairs said it will launch a mortality study that will seek similar information for veterans nationwide.

JoAnn Crum: And do what with that information? These valiant men and women and their families need help NOW!

John Patrick Berry: Amen, JoAnn!

Tara Packer: Thank goodness! The casualties of war extend so much further than the dirt of foreign lands. PTSDrelated suicides have claimed

Andrew Nelson: I am a still-serving combat medic. The problem extends into our families at the same time. As soon as we deploy, the doctors in the states throw SSRI’s at our family’s faster than we can call home for the first time. And then they wonder why the divorce rate gets so high? Because our spouses don’t care about anything anymore. I’ve seen Seroquel, an antipsychotic given to too many people just to help them sleep. It’s a pandemic. Get involved in the discussion about the day’s news on