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Business Daily: Bailing out the banks again?

04/07/2011

Bailing out the banks again?

BBC World Service - Business Daily, Bailing out the banks again?

The immediate crisis in Greece is over, but Europe's banks are still at risk

The storm in the Aegean seems to have subsided but who does the bailout really benefit - Greece or the banks that lent it the money in the first place? And a quick history of sovereign defaults.

So, the Grecian storm has blown over. Parliament has voted for austerity measures and the eurozone's finance ministers have given the green light to the next tranche of bailout money for the country.

So, that's it then? Europe's economic troubles are over, the doomsayers are in retreat.

The release of the latest $17bn should enable Greece to avoid a default on its debts until the end of the summer. But the country still needs a lot more, including a second bailout package, if it's to stay afloat for the next four years.

Justin Rowlatt interviews Dr Paola Subacchi, the Research Director for International Economics at Chatham House.

Even if the Greek economy is still hurtling down the track towards default, albeit at a reduced speed, it wouldn't be the country's first.  Indeed, sovereign defaults - the bogeyman currently spreading terror through the world financial markets -are actually quite common. 

Over the centuries, many, many countries have defaulted on their debts, including Greece, England and Spain.

Justin Rowlatt discusses sovereign defaults with Kenneth Rogoff, the Professor of Economics at Harvard University. Professor Rogoff co-authored the book This Time Is Different, which explores the history of sovereign defaults.  

And finally: "What's in a name? That which we call a rose, by any other name would smell as sweet."

When Shakespeare wrote this line for Juliet in perhaps his most famous play, clearly he wasn't thinking about the business world. Juliet is arguing that it doesn't matter that Romeo's family name is Montague - she loves him nonetheless. 

But, as regular commentator Lucy Kellaway from the Financial Times has been discovering, in the realm of the chief executive, names do matter.

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