A Dysfunctional Nation

By John Mauldin | June 9, 2012

dysfunctional [dɪsˈfʌŋkʃən^əl] adj

1. (Medicine) Med (of an organ or part) not functioning normally

2. (especially of a family) characterized by a breakdown of normal or beneficial relationships between members of the group

European leaders launched the euro project in the last century as an experiment to see whether political hope could become economic reality. What they have done is create one of the most dysfunctional economic systems in history. And the distortions inherent in that system are now playing out in an increasingly dysfunctional social order. Today we look at some rather disturbing recent events and wonder about the actual costs of that experiment. What type of "therapy" will be needed to treat the dysfunctional family that Europe has become? And maybe I'll throw in a "fun" item to finish with, so let's get started.

A Dysfunctional Nation

Michael Lewis has documented quite tellingly in Boomerang the dysfunctional country that is Greece – how citizens avoid taxes, how over 600 categories of workers can retire at the age of 50 with full pensions, and how fraud and corruption are endemic. Other stories have surfaced about how few doctors report more than 10,000 euros of income and how few professionals pay their property taxes.

Recently, when the current Greek government committed to actually collect some taxes in order to get more loans, a bureaucrat decided that a great way to collect property taxes would be to include them in people's electricity bills, a move that caused an uproar. Lawsuits followed, as the national power company tried to cut off electricity for nonpayment. In a country where it can take a decade for a legal matter to get on a court docket, a court rather quickly took up the case and ruled it illegal for the power company to cut off service for non-payment. This ruling led to a massive financial loss by the power company as people simply stopped paying their electric bills.

The government had to step in with a rather large chunk of cash to keep the power on. As of May 1, the power company announced, it would no longer collect property taxes. The natural gas company threatened to cut off supplies to the electric utility for nonpayment, and emergency meetings are being held to"… avert the collapse of the natural gas and electricity system."

The credit system in Greece is in a shambles, and there has been an open bank run this year. Reports that hospitals cannot get necessary life-saving medicines abound, as there is no more credit to be had from most manufacturers. Unemployment is at 22%, and youth unemployment is over 50%. "A collapse in the country's economy has forced many Greeks to turn to black market barter economies and has left millions financially devastated, with no hope of finding an income stream for the foreseeable future." ( infowars.com)

The last election resulted in no possibility of a governing coalition, and new elections are scheduled for next weekend (June 17) – except that the employees who run the elections are threatening to strike if they are not given more pay. The head of the government workers union said Thursday that the union will hold a two-day strike on June 16-17. He also said municipal employees will refuse to do any election-related work until then. We will now see whether the courts will declare such a strike illegal and whether the members will honor a court decision. ( http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/greek-municipal-workers-call-electoral-strike-threatening-to-derail-crucial-june-17-vote/2012/06/07/gJQAlhOjLV_story.html)

Greece was already in enough turmoil, with no clear winner emerging in the last polls that were taken this week. (Note: It is against Greek law to publish the results of a poll less than two weeks before an election.) And then there was the "debate."

I assume that by now you have seen the video of the televised debate among representatives of the seven Greek parties. In a bit of poor planning, the very nationalistic Golden Dawn party head, a rather solid-looking young body builder, was seated next to the Communist Party leader, who is a lady. A few insults were exchanged, some water was thrown in the face of a rather pleasant-looking young lady (a representative of a leftist party) across the table from the Golden Dawn guy, there was a slap on his arm with a folder by the Communist Party leader; and then they were on their feet and Mr. Golden Dawn was repeatedly slapping and then punching Ms. Communist Party.

If for some reason you have not viewed this short but exciting clip, here is a link: http://www.rt.com/news/greek-politician-slaps-rival-278/ . Or you can Google "golden dawn greek slap" and get a link to a report in your language of choice. If you choose the German version from Der Spiegel, you can hear the word neo-Nazi repeated several times by the German reporter.

This exchange provokes a few thoughts. First, incidents of violence and vigilantism in Greece are rising, along with the lawful public demonstrations. Whatever veneer of civility that was left was ripped away by the boorish behavior of the Golden Dawn representative.

Second, this fracas will now dominate the national conversation. Rather than focusing on what they should do about remaining in the eurozone, accepting or rejecting austerity, and putting together some sort of coalition that can govern the country, they will be focused on this event. Nine days before an election in which no party seemed to have a clear lead or a path to a ruling coalition, the results are now even more in question. Golden Dawn had some 6% of the Greek vote. Will it maintain that percentage? If not, where will its votes go? Will this help or hurt the mainstream conservative or left-of-center parties?

Whether it be families or nations, such a level of dysfunctionality almost always ends in tears. The "slap" is just one more telling incident in a country that is on the brink of self-destruction. It is very possible that the winner of the election will be a party that wants to reject austerity but believes that the rest of Europe will give them the money they need to continue to pay their public employees, maintain services, and keep the government functioning. The reasoning seems to be that Europe will do that because they need the Greeks to continue to pretend that they will pay off their national debt to the European governments and ECB.

Why are we still fixated on Greece? Even though Greece is small, it matters; because if Greece leaves the euro then the markets will immediately ask, "Who's next?" And while a year ago everyone thought the answer was Portugal, the market is now looking hard at Spain, which is on the same path to insolvency that Greece was only a few years ago.

Spanish government leaders are now beginning to admit they must have help, as it appears they will soon be frozen out of the bond market, if that has not happened already. As I have written, it will take a massive commitment of European (read German) money to save Spain, and it's not a one-time commitment. It is not just 100 billion euros to re-fund Spain's banks. If Spain gets frozen out of the market, adding another €100 billion in debt will not make things better, when there is a nearly 10% fiscal deficit, unemployment as bad as Greece's, and an economy that is in freefall.

Europe is going to have to buy all Spanish debt for years. And not just new debt but all the old debt that is coming due and must be refinanced. We are talking hundreds of billions of euros. And if there is a bank run on the order of Greece's? The number just keeps getting bigger. To think it will be anything like the €46 billion being talked about by the IMF today is to simply ignore economic reality.

That money will have to come from somewhere. Either the ECB will have to monetize it directly (possible but not likely) or a pan-European entity like the ESM will have to be allowed to become a bank and then apply to the ECB for loans and a capital infusion in order to then bail out Spanish (and other) banks.

It is obvious, at least to your humble analyst, that if the eurozone is to survive several things must happen. First, there must be something created on the order of a European FDIC. Banking guarantees and regulation must become a European responsibility, not a country responsibility. How would it have worked if the rest of the US had decided that New York should bail out its own banks, when they had their crisis in 2008?

Second, if the ESM is allowed to become a bank, then what will those guarantees look like? Because the original agreement of member countries to back a specific and limited amount of debt will now be increased ten-fold. And that will mean something in the neighborhood of €4-5 trillion.

How could they need that much? The answer is, because it will not be just Spain. Can Italy be far behind, given the unfolding European recession? And the French banks? France itself, given the new policy direction of its government and its own massive unfunded liabilities?

Assume it is just €4 trillion, spread over a few years. Germany will be responsible for at least 25% of that amount, or about 40% of their GDP. And that assumes that Spain, Greece, Ireland, et al. will be good for their portions.

Will Germany want to take on such a massive new debt? The periphery countries already owe the German Bundesbank over €1 trillion. German debt-to-GDP is already at 80%. German credit default swaps are rising in cost.

If Germany takes that first step, it must be prepared to keep marching, because to stop at any point will mean even more pain, since they will still be responsible for their share of any debt created after that first step. As they say at the poker table, "In for a dime, in for a dollar."

Certainly, if they are to take on such a debt, there must be guarantees of fiscal control by the nations who need help.

And that means a tighter fiscal union. When the euro was created, European leaders thought that a common currency would naturally lead to a fiscal union. Monetary unions without fiscal union always become dysfunctional.

Or there will have to be direct monetization of the debt by the ECB, which goes against the policy that Germany thinks it agreed to.

Either way, it is a very large change in position for Germany.

There are three problems that Europe must solve. They have a sovereign debt problem and a resulting banking debt problem. Both of these are evident and there might be some solution, given time and money.

But the third problem is the more difficult one. That is the trade imbalance between Germany and the peripheral countries and the differing levels of productivity of their workers. Trade deficits must be brought into line. The usual way to do this is through currency devaluation by the country with the trade deficit. That is not possible for the countries in the eurozone. So, the only other way is for the workers of an uncompetitive country to accept lower wages. Since no one thinks they are underpaid, that will happen slowly and painfully and mean a protracted recession or depression.

Which leads to voter frustration and frayed nerves that spill over into dysfunctional actions. It also leads to political changes.