Weekly Wrap: Continued debt problems in Greece
Kai Ryssdal talks with Leigh Gallagher from Fortune magazine and Marketplace’s New York bureau chief Heidi Moore.
On how the Greek debt crisis will affect the U.S.:
Leigh Gallagher: The odds of it really affecting the U.S. in a major way, I would put, at this point, still pretty small. I mean, the situtation there is pretty serious. Greece is just a fraction of the Eurozone GDP, but really so many countries and European banks hold its debt, the fear here is contagion.
On why Greece’s economic future is unclear:
Heidi Moore: Our grasp of banking data is as bad as it ever was. And there are a lot of contracts out there in the market where people have bet on whether Greece will fail or not. And not just Greece — Italy and Spain. And a lot of those contracts — insurance contracts, really — are going to determine how well the banks survive this.
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