dump euro, declare debt moratorium says thai economist to greece

Thanong Khanthong, the editor of Thailand's {The Nation} and one of the most perceptive Asian analysts of the global financial crisis since the 1997 attack on the baht by George Soros, today gave Greece some excellent advice, and for the right reason: "Greece's political chaos demonstrates that throwing good money after bad isn't working. The euro zone is on the verge of a break-up."

Thanong warns that staying in the Euro means social chaos and further economic collapse. Dumping the euro can mean "complete bankruptcy, international trade disruptions and a cut-off from the international financial markets." But that's the only viable course, he says, and "many analysts now admit" this to be the case.


His advice:

"First, quit the euro and go back to the drachma. The lesson is clear that countries should never have abandoned their printing presses. If a country loses power to print is own currency, it will lose its sovereignty.

"Second, announce a moratorium on all debts."

His other proposals are based on Greece pulling itself up on its own--an impossibility which simply begs for a global creditary system to replace the bankrupt monetary structure.

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China Moves Away From Euro-Bonds

The China Investment Corp., China's sovereign wealth fund, with assets of about $440 billion, stopped buying European government debt because of the economic crisis on the continent, though it continues to look for new investments there, said CIC President Gao Xiqing.

"What is happening in Europe right now is of course of concern," Gao said yesterday in an interview in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, during the World Economic Forum on Africa. "We still have our people looking at opportunities in Europe, even though we don't want to buy any government bonds."

This does not necessarily mean that China is no longer investing some of its $3.4 trillion of foreign exchange reserves in European debt, but is nonetheless quite significant.