People care about Greece for a number of reasons. It gives the global financial system a chance to play around with what does and what does not constitute a formal default, thus playing delightful games with the CDS premiums and hedging thereof. It gives opportunities for the Big Money to jerk the media into providing a ‘rationale’ for why a totally unrelated set of asset classes are being apparently hammered because of ‘uncertainty in Greece’. Of course, they will with equally unrelated rationality rise back to prior levels in due course under another apparent exogenous event or set of events.
It also provides the potential for unlegislated activity from a EU member state in terms of exiting that which has no current legal basis for exit. It also provides the basis for an equally unlegislated expulsion of same. Fun and games all round. Which of course has (or should have) ramifications for the integrity and longevity of the EU itself.
While a great deal of Greek default (current and future) has been factored into big players portfolios, it is not possible to hedge all comers for the simple reason that the more complex financial instruments do not permit full risk allocation or even assessment of the ‘Greek situation’. Black boxes stay dark (presumably with the half-dead cat still inside them). So apart from lack of suitable hedge, there is lack of total clarity about what exactly needs to be hedged.
That’s just from a trading perspective.
Fold in economic, political, cultural platforms and views and you get what is currently referred to as the ‘media mix’ which is what you’ll read on news websites, newspapers and on serious news TV programs. There further polarise rather than educate the mass of common opinion which is itself woefully mindless and introspective. But for those gripped in the throes of their tentatively conceived yet fiercely defended convictions, it’s deeply impactful stuff and well worth ‘caring’ about. Because while they (the unwashed masses) continue caring and debating the right and wrong and the best way forward, those orchestrating and manipulating the situation can go quietly about their business, as usual.
