The announcement last week that Greece would hold a referendum on whether to adopt austerity measures sent stock markets down, but only modestly so, relatively speaking. And there was no real panic as volumes traded were only 162 million shares. An average trading day on the TSX/S&P composite index has usually closer to 200 million shares trading.
My favourite commentaries on the Greek tragedy (or is it comedy?) comes from the banks. Douglas Porter, chief economist with BMO Capital Markets, gives ten reasons why we shouldn’t fear the referendum … much (his words) including the fact the Greeks could vote in favour of the austerity measures and even if they don’t, Greece is a very small country, with only 0.02% of Canadian exports going there. So there will be little effect on North America.
Greeks, on the other hand, are worried, causing a rush on banks last weekend that led to limits on how much people could withdraw from ATMs. Fearing a return to the drachma, some Greeks are turning to Bitcoin. Tourists, on the other hand, don’t seem to be affected.
Did you know “nai” means yes in Greece, despite looking a lot like no? That’s from another Porter article called Time to say goodbye?, BMO’s Friday Focus in which Porter talks about July 4th, a Canadian recession and Greece, but not in that order. He also mentions one of his favourite economic quotes and it comes from Richard Nixon of all people.
Bloomberg has an interesting article about why Greece, where democracy was invented, now has it all wrong. Yes, it’s great when the people of a country make the decisions. But when there is a crisis what people really need is leadership, according to Bloomberg’s Noah Feldman.
Perhaps there is a lesson to be learned locally, in light of the results of the transit plebiscite. BIV columnist Peter Ladner thinks so.
And in other news, bubble wrap is going popless. But the company will still keep the originally popping kind too. Why am I reminded of Classic Coke?
