Do these guys remind you of the NAR, or what?

Germany balks at committing another $91 billion (91 billion Euros, actually, but I can’t find that symbol on my keyboard) to the Greek bailout over and on top of the first $211 billion.

The European banks and private creditors have swallowed a 70% slashing of their loans (but don’t call that a “default” by Greece or all sorts of nasty things will come into play) and everything is dependent on Germany coughing up a third –  again as much cash as it initially promised. This makes at least the fifth time the debt talks have snagged, the whole Eurosphere teeters on the precipice yet watching from afar (that would be me, out of the market and out here in Riverside) Wall Street and other “experts” crow about the pending solution and keep pouring money into  Greek debt and, like many Realtors I know, insist that the bottom has been touched and we’re going up from here.

Realtors feel they have to lie about a recovery because how can they sell houses now when they’ll be cheaper later? As for Wall Street,  I’d guess that the optimistic lenders and traders gain their cheery outlook from the fact that they’re using money from the Fed (U.S. taxpayers) and they see no risk. Other’s who perhaps don’t have access to the free Kool-Aid being passed out by Washington, are as sanguine:

The EU’s own experts doubt that it will be enough to put Greece’s debt on a sustainable path, while market analysts are scathing. “We forecast a further prolonged economic depression that would leave the debt to GDP ratio at about 160pc to 170pc in 2020,” said Citigroup.

Mark Weisbrot, from Washington’s Centre for Economic and Policy Research, said Greece should default and leave the EMU. “Is the euro worth this kind of punishment?” he said.

The Merkel government is in a delicate situation. It assured the Bundestag in September that Germany’s exposure to EU rescues were capped at €211bn. A major boost to the ESM would push the figure above €300bn, requiring the trauma of a fresh vote. Moreover, Germany’s constitutional court has warned any rescue commitment exceeding one-year’s budget – €306bn in 2012 – threatens stability and may violate Basic Law.

Graeme Leach, the Institute of Directors’ chief economist, said Berlin’s “fiscal compact” to police the budgets of EU deficit states is in no sense a fiscal union. “Germany has not agreed to eurobonds or North-South fiscal transfers. Europe can’t find a solution because there isn’t one.

“There is zero chance that the eurozone will survive in current form this year, and Greece will be out by the summer, just in time for cheap holidays,” he said.