Troubles continue for Greece, where that country’s credit ratings have just been cut (http://www.businessweek.com/news/2010-04-22/greece-aid-fails-to-cut-downgrade-risk-moody-s-says-update2-.html ).  “Eurostat, meanwhile raised Greece’s budget deficit in 2009 to 13.6 percent of gross domestic product from its earlier prediction of 12.9 percent, while the ratio of government debt to GDP stood at 115.1 percent, the second highest in the European Union after Italy.”  Riots continue as union members react to further cuts being made by the Socialist government.  “Civil servants staged a 24-hour strike Thursday against austerity measures and expected job cuts by Greece’s crisis-plagued government, and the EU’s statistics agency said the country’s budget was even worse than previously thought.”  The unanswered question of course is: how can Greece possibly get out of this and will the mess spread.  Or perhaps a better question may be: how can this economic meltdown not spread.  Is Italy next?

Here is a link to the full story: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20100422/D9F845DO3.html

Michael