Why would anyone buy Greek bonds over the 5 years unless they
are idiots.
Maybe they assume that the EU bankers will keep bailing out the bankers and other elite and saying it's a debt the "little folk" have to pay back?
Is it really any different here?
I can only assume these bonds bottomed out a few years back when this all started and then for pennies these guys bought them up thinking that the EU would bail them out and straighten them out before now.
If they had gotten ten cents on the dollar they would have cut a fat hog.
Because of the greater fool theory. In the U.S. the greatest fool, the Fed, has essentially promised to buy your "investment" in U.S. bonds as long as the U.S. economy keeps struggling. Even Greece has greater fools, although there is no greatest fool in their case.
Because they assumed the EU institutions had everything under control.
After all, they had just made an example of Cyprus, to show what happens when an EU member misbehaves. Now with a compliant government in control there and the EU bailout/haircut policy deemed to be a “success’” (according to the NY Times), why should the Greek people be so foolish as to elect a defiant, left-wing party like Syriza? Never happen, right?