The Drachma Threatens to Return

Published Wed, Jun 6th, 2012   Wall Street Daily Research

 

The future currency of Greece is a looming question. But what’s not a question is the effect reverting to the drachma would have: It would be a disaster.

It’s not just the reigning opinion of analysts, either. Vassilis Tsirikos owns Tsirikos Bikes, one of the rare companies to continue doing well despite Greece’s dilapidated economy:

“I can’t imagine what this scenario with the drachma will mean for us in the bicycle business. We have Greek products we could sell, but I imagine it will be very expensive and very difficult to import bicycles from abroad, which even now there is difficulty because despite this difficult time of uncertainty the merchandise has to be pre-paid. We could order them, pre-pay them, but we won’t know if we will be able to sell them afterwards at this new price if the currency changes to the drachma.”

Whether it’s the drachma or the euro, it all hinges on Greece’s upcoming election, scheduled for June 17. But as Wall Street Daily’s Jason Simpkins points out, if the country doesn’t figure out how to keep the power on, it might be in for yet another political delay.