THE TIMES DON'T REALLY SEEM TO BE CHANGING: Greek Referendum and Swaps Option Raise Huge Risks - Barrons.com

Greek Referendum and Swaps Option Raise Huge Risks - Barrons.com

In the same way the housing bubble, as it was building, seemed to be a house built on the sand of rising prices but not rising incomes; so too, the current environment,where interest rates are effectively zero or negative (thus no encouragement to save and defer gratification) yet governments are spending far more than their economies can give them with ever rising taxes, seems to be economic environment built on sand.

What the storm will be that wracks these economies and whether a particular storm will have the same destructive impact on all of them is clearly unknown.

However, this article starts to touch on them.

(As a simple example, we see low rates paid on savings here in Portugal; yet, Friday's news was that the Portuguese banks don't have the funds to lend to Portugal's largest companies that need to roll over EUR ($?) 3 billion in debt.)

Clearly, the economic balancing act between borrowers and savers is askew; and,looking for the Fed or ECB to keep printing money can't end well.

We know fiscal and regulatory policies are inhibiting growth in the US and here in many parts of Europe.

The housing bubble went on far longer than a number of people thought (the rest being blissfully ignorant). So too, people demanding and wanting things from government that are ultimately unaffordable seems to be going on far longer than one would hope.

Then again, politicians are afraid to talk about it.