what currency crises were like only 25 - nah, make that 15 - years ago
As I mentioned in another comment, Iceland's currency was destroyed in a day in 2008.
Not to speak of the Argentinean corralito crisis in 2001, Russia in 1998, and the Asian Tigers in 1997.
It's just that, in a typically smug fashion, the Angloamerican Masters of the Universe from the City and Wall Street thought it could never happen to us. En un viejo país ineficiente, algo así como España entre dos guerras civiles, poseer una casa y poca hacienda y memoria ninguna. -- Gil de Biedma
I just read an economist tell an old joke about two pilots that fell into a jungle. They hear a lion roar and one of them puts on running shoes. The other says to him, "You can't outrun a lion." The first guy says, "I don't need to outrun the lion, I need to outrun you."
Greece is like the latter. In the midst of a global meltdown, and really in the midst of a global market, they became complacent. It's not the recession that has caused this but a race to the bottom. When you're competing with the third world in an increasingly competitive market, you better figure things out quickly or you will get picked off. The problem is, humans aren't equipped to go from eating steak to cabbage so quickly. And therein lies the problem.
