Get in on Greek sale

Always had a hankering to own the Parthenon? Maybe the entire Acropolis? You may have a chance because that classic pile of marble may come on the market.

On May 19, Greece must make good on 8.5 million euros' worth of debt repayments. Thanks to what one financial publication called a mixture of waywardness and mendacity, Greece can't do it.

Even before its bond status was downgraded to junk this past week, Greece had difficulty borrowing. At one point, the interest rate on its two-year bonds was 23 percent, and lenders thought, rightly, that there was little hope the cradle of democracy would be in shape to repay that money.

Greece is a member of the European Union. The EU requires its members to observe limits on budget deficits, which some members do better than others. Thanks to generous public works spending, public-employee salaries and perks and feisty unions, Greece didn't do well at all. Moreover, the government lied about the size of its deficit and the amount of debt it was running up.

Greece is also a member of the eurozone, meaning it shares a common currency, the euro, with the rest of Europe. That precludes it from dealing with the debt the way the more feckless of nations have traditionally done -- run the printing presses and pay off the debt with funny money.

That meant Athens had to go hat in hand to the EU and the International Monetary Fund and ask for a bailout. Letting the market for Greek debt tank might take other financially parlous countries with it -- Portugal, Spain and Italy, most notably -- and the eurozone financial exchanges as well.

Said the chief investment officer of a leading securities firm in Athens: "There is a very serious risk of contagion, it's something like post-Lehman period. Everybody is panicking and there is a lot of fear in the market." It says something, probably not good, that the 2008 bankruptcy of U.S. investment bank Lehman Brothers is being invoked two years later in Greece to terrify European bankers into action.

Grudgingly, the other EU countries agreed to a 45 billion euro bailout scheme that might buy Greece a year, maybe even three, of time. Most grudging of all was Germany, where the bailout is extremely unpopular. As one German formulation goes, "Why should I work until 67 so the Greeks can retire at 62?"

Chancellor Angela Merkel faces regional elections on May 9 and would like to cut any agreement on bailouts as close as possible to the elections. If she cuts it too close, you might get your shot at the Parthenon.

Even then Greece may not be in the clear. There is substantial doubt whether the government has the will and the courage to make the tough cuts in public spending and benefits to bring the books back into line.

Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou's solution -- miracles -- is less than confidence building. "In difficult times we can perform -- and we are performing -- miracles," he promises.

There is said to be a lively market for credit-default swaps -- the kind of financial product that got Goldman Sachs hauled before Congress -- because investors are looking to bet that Greece will fail, either being forced to greatly restructure its debt or default altogether.

If the Goldman Sachs broker calls with a hot deal in Greek bonds, hang up or, better yet, tell him you have a Parthenon to sell him.

-- McFeatters writes for Scripps Howard News Service.