June 8, 2011, Fairfax, VA—Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson today issued the following statement blasting the Obama Administration for offering that the U.S. would contribute to another bailout to debt-plagued Greece said to total €80 to €100 billion:
“Leaving the absurdity aside of the world’s largest debtor, the U.S., pledging financial assistance to troubled sovereigns like Greece, it is no less outrageous. The real reason for the U.S. intervention may be that American financial institutions like AIG may have sold credit-default swaps to some European institutions that bought Greek debt as insurance against default. If Greece defaults, then the swaps would pay out, and that would put companies like AIG and whoever else sold swaps on Greek debt in hot water.
“Moreover, German and French banks own about €15.5 billion and €10.28 billion of Greece’s €340 billion debt, meaning a default would hit them particularly hard, too. The European Central Bank too is on the hook directly for €45 billion in Greek debt, not to mention tens of billions of Greek debt it accepted as collateral when making loans. Of course these banks want another bailout. They cannot afford to take losses of that magnitude.
“Really, this is less about bailing out Greece than it is about bailing out international banks that have bet extremely poorly on sovereign debt in Greece and elsewhere. It must be made perfectly clear that American taxpayers ought not to be on the hook for the mistakes of European bankers and profligate spenders in Greece. Bailing out Europe is a crime against American taxpayers that will not soon be forgiven.”
Interview Availability: Please contact Rebekah Rast at (703) 383-0880 or at rrast@getliberty.org to arrange an interview with ALG President Bill Wilson.
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