George Will on the Greek protesters

Dependency is the agenda of the other [progressive] side.  It is the agenda to make more and more people dependent and more and more things on the government.  Where we can now see today in the headlines from Europe where that leads.  It leads to the streets of Athens.  Where we had described by media as anti-government mobs.  The anti-government mobs were composed almost entirely of government employees.

~ George Will, keynote address at the 2010 Milton Friedman Prize dinner, sponsored by the Cato Institute, 10:10 mark, May 13, 2010

Alan Greenspan on the return of the Greek drachma

A greek default is inevitable. If there is not fiscal consolidation, I cannot see any credible scenario where the Greek drachma does not come back.

~Alan Greenspan, former chairman, Federal Reserve, CNBC interview, June 30, 2011

Alan Greenspan on the inevitability of a Greek default

There's only two possible givens: there's a Greek default or there is a fiscal consolidation of the 17 countries of the Euro Zone.

I find that unlikely except for the fact that Germany is so key to that decision. Germany's caught up in a very critical political dilemma. If they were to stop and stop supporting Greece and Greece went under, what would very likely happen, we'd get some dismantling of the euro. What the Germans are resting on is a very strong export market, the result of the fact that the euro, relative to euro, relative to the eollar, is lower.

If, however, Germany goes back to the Deutschmark, which almost surely would be worth 20% more than the euro, they would have a huge capital gain. Remember, their liabilities would be much lower, but the very high Deutschmark would mean their exports would be under severe contraction. They have this short term problem of "how do we keep exports going, employment good?" Remember, they're doing very well, a very large part of that is they are supporting the transfer of a very large amounts of money.

That keeps the euro in place. It also keeps exports, as a critical variable.

~Alan Greenspan, former chairman, Federal Reserve, CNBC interview, June 30, 2011

Alan Greenspan says the motor of the US economy is Greece

It's very evident to anybody that looks at the data the major force driving our economy indirectly through the financial markets is Greece. As the Greek default goes up in probability, we run into all sorts of problems. largely, not because the United States has a lot of Greek debt. As you know, it doesn't. It's essentially that we have very large commitments in Europe and Europe is critical to not only holding the Greek debt, but I might add, also where I think approximately half the foreign affiliate earnings are generated.

So if Europe runs into trouble because of Greece, it's going hit us two ways. One, the basic commitment that we have to Europe and the usual financial flows, but in addition, it's going to affect the whole structure of profitability in the United States. Because we can't afford a [mumbled] and foreign affiliate earnings in Europe coming down significantly.

~Alan Greenspan, former chairman, Federal Reserve, CNBC interview, June 30, 2011