EU Still Working On Second Greek Bailout

Finance ministers across the euro zone continue to work towards approving a second bailout for Greece today. This bailout will help Greece’s immediate repayment needs, but will probably not fix the country’s dire economic situation. The 130 billion euro bailout package would allow Greece to avoid imminent bankruptcy. Something else will have to be done in the near future though since the bailout package is merely a delay of a Greek default.

Greeks continue to protest this second bailout package due to the extreme austerity measures it puts on the Greek people. The people of Greece have already dealt with extreme austerity measures from the first bailout package.

Greece’s finance minister, Evangelos Venizelos, is expecting a deal to be done at some point today. “We expect today the long period of uncertainty—which was in the interest of neither the Greek economy nor the euro zone as a whole—to end,” Venizelos said in a statement. Who knows if that will actually happen. We’ve been hearing a Greek deal is done for months now.

The Netherlands have insisted that Greece meet all its obligations before it would approve any additional bailout packages. Some officials worry that Greece will not adhere to new austerity measures after their elections in April. The Greek people are deeply against the austerity measures as they have suffered greatly doing the bidding of the bigger EU countries.

If a Greek deal is signed today, the overall market should rally. If not, then uncertainty and fear will creep back into the market.