Is Europe dying?

Remember when Greece was a carefree place full of sunshine, wine, and happy people snapping their fingers to the balalaika. (AP Photo/file)

Remember when Greece was a carefree place full of
sunshine, wine, and happy people snapping their fingers to
the balalaika.

“One-quarter of Greek people are unemployed. You see
long lines outside soup kitchens. Thousands of people are
sleeping on the streets,” says CBS’ Clarissa Ward.

That’s not a recession CBS’s Clarissa Ward is
describing, that’s the Great Depression. And how much
breathing room does Greece’s new government have?

“Greece is expected to run out of money on July 20,”
says Ward.

Oh, but there’s more. Remember when Spain was a
carefree place of sunshine, bullfights, and castanets?

“Spain’s cost of borrowing is up above 7 percent.
That’s a very magic level. It’s the point at which
Ireland, Greece and Portugal were all forced to seek
bailouts,” says CBS Jill Schlesinger.

And if you ask Jill Schlesinger from CBS Moneywatch.com
why Greece and Spain should matter to us, she,
unfortunately, has a very quick answer.

“A couple of things happen,” says Schlesinger, “the
financial system freezes up. Europe goes into a deep
recession. We stop exporting as much stuff to Europe. Our
stock market craters. Your 401K account goes down.”

OK enough. Is there anyplace left to go were no one is
constantly worried about the economy? OK, here we go.

“We’ve got more jobs than we can fill,” says Ron Ness
of the North Dakota Petroleum council. “We have a state
budget surplus, economic opportunities across the board.”

They’re so rich they just voted to keep paying their
property tax even though they could have repealed it.

See you in Fargo. I hope they have castanets.