Merkel Disses Greece

UK's Guardian reports:

Angela Merkel, Germany's chancellor, promised swift action to end the crisis, but said it was a mistake for Greece to have been allowed to join the single currency. "In 2000 we had a situation when we were confronted with the question of whether Greece should be able to join the eurozone," she said. "It turned out that the decision [in favour] may not have been scrutinised closely enough."

It continues to be hard to believe that Germany will be anywhere around when it comes time to pull out a checkbook to support a bailout Greece.

Right now it appears that EU members have ditched their fire trucks, and are walking to the fire, while making sure they honor all crosswalk signs.

According to the Guardian, interest rates on two-year Greek bonds, yesterday, climbed as high as 38% at one point, yet the Euro zone members won't be meeting until May 10th or 11th. True, the big day for Greece is May 19th when they have to pay off 8.5 billion in euro debt, but a May 11 meeting leaves little time to resolve differences before a life saving check must be delivered to the Greeks.

What the time lag and slow pace does do is allow the speculation and fears spread to the other PIIGS. Germany certainly has no obligation to bail out any of the PIIGS, and it is certainly proving that.

Examining the default option, one can state that the various PIIGS could default and the EU could still remain intact, however, there may be advantages at this point (like the ability to print money) for some, or all, of the PIIGS to default and leave the EU.
Stay tuned.