Sarajevo for the Euro

The crisis now rolling through the debt markets is not a crisis of Greece, but of the bankrupt euro system and U.S. financial system. Most of the nations of the trans-Atlantic region are facing a breakdown crisis, if not tomorrow, then within weeks; a breakdown crisis of the trans-Atlantic nations from which only those of South America are somewhat protected.

This crisis has been triggered now because of the financial and economic rape of Greece, not by its declaration of bank holiday; it is not a Greek problem that the financial system is at the brink of a chain-reaction breakdown.

Following Greek Prime Minister Tsipras’ firm speech announcing the bank holiday, in which he quoted President Franklin Roosevelt, the chaos the creditor institutions wanted, did not materialize, except on their own markets. News sources which interviewed citizens in Greek cities — Reuters, USAToday, for example — found most Greeks supporting the government and supporting an “Oxi” (No) vote in the referendum: “We can’t get any poorer,” was a typical comment. There was strong support for Greece’s stand from opposition forces in Spain and Italy, and from British Labour MPs.

The Greeks are, in fact, in a more stable position than the rest of the nations of Europe. “Greek crisis could be a ‘Sarajevo’ moment for the euro,” wrote Guardian chief financial columnist Larry Elliot; “Merkel’s Strategy Didn’t Just Fail, It Failed Spectacularly,” headlined Der Spiegel. “There is a real threat of Europe collapsing.”

At the same moment, the governor of Puerto Rico announced that it could no longer make payments on its debt, a very large $72 billion dollars, sending shock waves into the U.S. municipal bond markets; the White House ruled out taking any action. And scores of hedge funds and banks which had, like lemmings, all bet the wrong way on the euro debt crisis, were taking big losses.

“The situation of the London and Wall Street financial system is impossible,” said EIR Founding Editor Lyndon LaRouche on Monday.

After LaRouche’s wise words, the markets resumed plunging all day Monday.