All too human irrationality.

I wish the current Greek financial crisis were not a small scale proxy for the current United States fiscal mess. Unfortunately it is just that. Too much government spending and too little revenue from the tax structure. In both cases the solution is cuts in spending combined with higher taxes. In the US this has been the recommendation of bi-partisan commissions and apolitical economic experts.

Following significant austerity measures, required of Greece in exchange for European loans, the population of Greece tossed out the politicians supporting austerity. But in a classic "not in my back yard"  move, the Greek populace then immediately took over $900 million out of Greek banks. Clearly, this implies that the public knows that killing the austerity package will harm the Greek economy and devalue its currency (while still part of the Euro zone, the implication of the cash withdrawals is that Greeks believe that Greece will extricate itself from the zone and return to the Drachma. Following this logic, they believe that the Drachma will then decrease in value with a commensurate increase in the value of the Euros being held.) Basically, individual Greeks will serve their own wallets ahead of long term solutions to their countries financial problems.

Hopefully the politicians in Washington will take measures to help the US economy and the population will not just continue to elect politicians willing to say anything to get elected (think "tea party").

nuf said