back to the drachma

With one possible exception, that of the extended swan song of General Francisco Franco, the late fascist dictator of Spain, I've never seen a death agony as drawn-out as the ongoing demise of the Greek banking system. People can be excused for thinking it will go on indefinitely, or perhaps even forever.

Except it won't, and thank God the end is finally here. The financial site Zero Hedge reports: Anxious Greeks have withdrawn as much as 700 million euros ($893 million) from the nation’s banks since the inconclusive May 6 election, President Karolos Papoulias told party leaders yesterday, according to a transcript of the meeting posted on the presidency’s website today.

So, after Greek depositors clean out the Euros that remain in their banking system, Greece can go ahead and default (they should have done it a year ago), the Euro will give way to the drachma, and we'll know just how ugly the ripples of Greece's fall on the US and western European economies is going to be.