It’s All Greek to Me

Greece’s economy has been floundering for quite some time and as the government scrambles to stay afloat, the citizens are protesting those moves in sometimes violent uprisings.  What’s scary is the impact this all has outside of Greece.  In a Reuters article (6/24/2011), “European banks and insurers are scrambling” and “stocks continued to decline and credit default swaps for Greece, Italy and Portugal widened on the renewed concerns about a potential default. The Euro also declined against the US dollar for the third straight day.”

James Neuger (6/22/2011) of Bloomberg writes that,  “…European leaders’ failure to tame a crisis that is entering its 21st month and has world leaders growing anxious over the prospect of a new financial tsunami as they shake off the effects of the last one.”  He quotes Andrew Balls, the head of Pacific Investment Management Company European portfolio management, “The 256 billion euros in aid committed to Greece, Ireland and Portugal have done little more than buy time against a looming default.”  He goes on to say, “If you quarantine Greece, Ireland, and Portugal, take these countries out of the market, have them do their adjustments, then you can buy time for Spain, buy time for banks to recapitalize.”

Greece’s Papandreou and his new government is trying hard to restructure the spending and bring in austerity measures. The people don’t like it.  Protesters line the streets and police are called out to break up the mobs with tear gas.  Neuger writes about “Reform Fatigue” that is now in the streets; support of these floundering economies is fading as well. Some see a split coming for the euro.  The split is between the wealthier northern countries and the poorer ones of the south.  It is now being reported that Italy is facing serious financial difficulties after supposedly healing up from economic wounds in 2009 and 2010.  Moody’s is threatening to downgrade Italy’s credit rating.  A USA Today article (6/24/2011)  says that this “Italy’s  financial system has come under further scrutiny on fears of contagion from the Greek crisis.” The article states that, “The move comes after Moody’s put Italy’s public debt on review for possible downgrade over concerns about low growth and high public debt, which is around 120% of GDP is one of the biggest in Europe.”

It seems that, in today’s global economy, the impacts of one country stumbling are significant.  The investments of banks all over the world which hold the debt of these governments become unstable.  Countries that are stronger and hold investments in many of these powerful banks have to throw their good money after bad. Everyone suffers. An article from TheTrumpet.com (6/22/2011) noted Jean-Claude Juncker, head of Eurogroup – the eurozone’s finance minister, said, “…that the Greece crisis could affect Italy and Belgium, saying that “We’re playing with fire.”” The article went on to state that “The crisis could now be spreading beyond Europe’s most vulnerable nations.  If it continues, even France’s credit worthiness could be in danger.”

So what does this upheaval in European economies mean to us? The U.S. is not far behind.  We’ve been warned about our credit rating.  We have no money left.  We spend more than we bring in.  Our debt is unsustainable.  When (and I do hope it happens) they do initiate the necessary spending cuts needed to get our budget under control, I suspect we’ll see protesters, not unlike what is happening in Europe, hit the streets.  People like the idea of fixing our budget woes but hate it when those cuts hit them.  The alarming thing is that many cities have had to cut police and fire in order to meet their budgets.  That means the cities may have trouble keeping up with the potential issues that could arise.
What do you do?  Here are just a few things to think about:

• Pay off your own personal debt so you don’t get caught up in any interest rate hikes that are likely to come.  Live within your means.
• Become independent: don’t rely on government hand outs in any way shape or form – they likely will go away
• Be prepared for higher taxes, even on your 401k’s (yes, our government has even talked of that)
• Be prepared for angry citizens who don’t like the cuts that will be required

I know I haven’t even come close to covering everything you should do to steel yourself for the economic upheaval I believe is coming our way.  These are just a few things to think about.
Feel free to comment on other good ideas.

Greek Island - Santorini

Beautiful view from the town of Oia (pronounced EE-AH) on Santorini, one of the most beautiful of the Greek islands.

The Naxos Effect

Notes from my journal:

I'm warm here laying in the Greek island sunshine, nothing to do and a gentle breeze doing a great job of keeping me from becoming too hot as I bask...here on a bench at the tiny airport of Samos. We were to stay 3 days in Kusadasi, by Ephesus in Turkey, then leave and go to Naxos via Samos. We've spent several days trying to figure out how to get to Naxos. My research in the states apparently wasn't thorough enough and there are not daily ferries to Naxos. We cannot get there! As a result we had to decide what to do with the next few days. We decided to fly on to Athens and then wing it from there. Our main goal was to really relax and soak up some sun. We've been going 100 miles an hour since we left the states and we are ready for some down time.

I'm not used to winging it. I like things planned out, so everything past our planned and now de-bunked Naxos itinerary, we are now referring to as the "Naxos Effect."

Once in Athens we made a beeline for a travel agency there in the airport. We figured we'd hit a beach or maybe even fly to Venice for a few days. We were game for just about anything. The travel agent was very helpful and booked us on a three day cruise through the islands. Perfect. It is a smaller, older cruise boat, but we liked the idea. We spent the night in Athens near the port and then left on Friday morning on the boat, Ocean Countess, at 11:00 a.m. Our first stop was Mykonos. Saturday morning the boat stopped in, you'll never guess, Kusadasi! We didn't even get off. We just sat on the deck and worked on our tans. The boat stayed only long enough for most passengers to get a quick bus trip and tour of Ephesus, and then we were off and away again, now we're on our way to Patmos.

From Patmos we'll hit Crete then Santorini, and then back to Athens. We'll only end up spending two and a half days in Athens, which we're told is enough, and then fly on home.

Back to Kusadasi. We met up with Mark and Michelle Moore in Kusadasi and stayed with them and their three children. Michelle had just found out she was pregnant with their fourth (they wanted four) and wasn't always feeling too well. We rented a car and tried to stay out of the way for the most part. Their two older children, Clarke and Alyssa, were very excited to have us there and talked our ears off. They drew us pictures and made a card for us to take home.

We visited Ephesus which was an amazing set of ruins and also a small Greek village called Siringe. We'll show every one pictures on those two places later. I really like Siringe. It was really a throw back. People had outdoor kitchens with stone ovens where they cooked. Very little in any modern amenities.

It has been very hot, probably in the mid to high 90's. Being on the boat with the breeze has made it nice though.

Exotic Trip Coming Up!

Those of you who know and love me (or at least like me) know that I fell in love with Europe in 2001 after my first visit with my mother and little sister. I've been back twice since. Now, I get to go again!

James and I have wanted to do a mission-type trip and our heart was set on something having to do with children. My heart was affected about six or seven years ago about the plight of unwanted children in the Eastern block of Europe: Russia, Romania, Kosovo; areas such as that. The people are so poor that many times they abandon their children. The children are in state run homes/orphanages and many times don't get much attention, and even less love. So we researched several organizations for a few years and we finally zeroed in on one facilitated by an older couple in Romania. She ministers to over 11 of these homes (some hospice-type institutions too since many children battle disabilities or illnesses) and even more on a more peripheral basis. She packs packages full of goodies, treats, and just visits too. At Christmas and on Children's Day, which is June 1st, she supplies gift boxes for each child. Needless to say this is a LOT of work.

We will be heading over there to work with her to prepare for Children's Day. We'll be there for about 6 days helping put together the packages as well as deliver them and spend time with the children. The average age is toddler through about age 12.

From there we'll fly over to the exotic Istanbul for a few days. We are very excited about visiting the bazaars and taking in the Byzantine architecture. We've been boning up on the history of Turkey so we can be somewhat informed as to what periods came when in history; like was the Ottoman empire before the or after the Byzantine?

From Istanbul we'll jet down the coast to Izmir and we'll explore a couple of the "seven churches" like Ephesus. Then we'll take ferries and head off to the Greek island of Naxos. We'll end our stay in Athens after taking in the Acropolis.

We're very jazzed about the trip and most of the planning and plotting are complete. I'll make sure to blog while we're gone too.