Has Angela Merkel Played The Worst Poker Hand In History?
Image: commons.wikimedia.orgIt’s nearly 2:00 AM in Brussels, and a statement still hasn’t been put out by the European leaders in regards to a Greek bailout, but it’s worth taking a step back to consider some events prior to this evening. One analogy that’s been used over and over and over again in this whole fiasco is poker, and the market repeatedly calling Angela Merkel’s bluff. Her “bluff” was her claim that she would never bail out Greece. Of course, in poker, having your bluff called isn’t a death-knell, so long as you bluff harder on the next card. You can keep bluffing and bluffing harder, giving yourself a chance to win, but also, of course, raising the odds that you lose a big honkin’ pot when the hand is over. And that seems to be what’s happened. Writes BTIG’s Mike O’Rourke: Almost two months ago in a speech to the German Parliament, Chancellor Angela Merkel launched a veiled threat at Greece remarking “We need an agreement that as a last resort, it’s possible to exclude a
