The parallel between the Greek debt crisis and the subprime crisis is striking. Trashy debt is alchemised to gold through manipulations driven by a political agenda.
In the case of subprime debt, this took the form of collateralized debt obligations consisting of government-supported mortgage-backed securities.
In the case of Greek bonds, it was European Monetary Union. Subprime debt, long believed to be risky, magically becomes almost as safe as Treasury bonds.
Greece, which has spent half its existence as an independent nation in default, magically becomes almost as creditworthy as Germany. In both cases, investors expected to be bailed out, and were.
In both cases, politically motivated wealth transfers were disguised as cheap credit. In both cases, taxpayers who resisted cash transfers to low-income groups found out later that they had to pay for what they did not want because the alternative was financial Armageddon.
See the complete article, and details behind what happened to the economy in Greece, in this article.