According to Margaret Thatcher, former Prime Minister of Britain, “the trouble with socialism is that sooner or later you run out of other people’s money.” That seems to be the point of the current European debt crisis. For the peripheral nations of the Euro-Zone, Greece, Portugal, Ireland, that day has come and gone. They have run out of money. But for each, joining the Euro-Zone provided them one big shot at still more ‘other people’s money’. When the three nations joined the Euro they each were introduced to much lower interest rates than they could qualify for on their own merits. They also were introduced to a much deeper and more liquid market for Euro-denominated securities. This was magical for the new Euro countries and provided a big lift to their economies. The Irish became the Celtic Tiger, the Greeks experienced a rebirth of economic growth, and the Portuguese, well there isn’t much hope for the Portuguese under any circumstances. Read more