I’ll describe the crisis briefly, then address two questions: whether the nations of the European Union, such as Germany, should try to bail out Greece; and what the Greek crisis tells us about what is in store for the United States. In the easy-money years of the early 2000s—for which we have Alan Greenspan, other central bankers, and President Bush and his foreign counterparts to thank—the Greek government borrowed a great deal of money from banks, mainly in Europe, to fund its huge public sector. Greece has chronic difficulty in funding its government expenditures out of tax revenues because of... | Continue »