I believe it was George Soros that was quoted that the recent bailout agreement with Greece would last “between one day to three months”, and it appears the answer will be less than a week. With the Greek government exercising a political move to have the bailout criteria go to a public referendum, it once again ratchets up the risk of a sovereign default and extends the drama and impact on the financial markets.
Even if this wasn’t the case, I would think that the next focus would be on Portugal’s solvency.
How long can the people of Germany and France allow their governments to subsidize the lifestyles of people in other countries? This is essentially the political question – admission to the Eurozone will inevitably have to be revoked if countries go beyond a certain metric regarding their financial performance.
If there is another push on credit, we’ll be seeing the usual happen – US dollar up, US treasury bond yields down, and commodities taking a nose dive – the typical “risk off” trade. Everybody investing in the markets at this time is forced to become a macroeconomic/geopolitical analyst to explain some of the risk in the securities they are investing in today. There will probably be continued aftershocks as this drama continues to unfold.