This is the Cato Daily Podcast for Thursday, May 17, 2012.

I'm Caleb Brown.

The Greek slide continues and the path ahead for that country to get its ship back on course is clear.

Unfortunately, it's far from clear that new elections to be held in a few weeks will finally

give Greece the credible commitment it needs to bring down its runaway spending.

Richard Rawn, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, comments.

Something you mentioned to me before we started recording,

which just kind of blew my mind.

France has not published a balance sheet for its Central Bank in how long?

Well they do the thing, it's on a regular period that they do them and I'm not quite sure what the time period is but

Suddenly it's no longer on our website and this indicates to you what exactly it indicates that

There is something they prefer the outside world not know and I would guess that probably a lot more in hock to the Germans they would want to admit

But I don't know exactly what they're trying to hide but if they

weren't trying to hide anything they would publish it as they always do it would be

on our website. What is the situation in Greece right now where I mean we're as we

record this on a Wednesday afternoon it seems like there's a bank run in progress.

Yes and the Greeks have announced they'll have a new set of elections on June 17th and between now and June 17th they won't pass any legislation

sort of nothing will happen and situation will probably only get worse because the Greek people have

indicated that they don't want any cutbacks but the problem is there is no money. And it's like saying, like a teenager,

demanding money from you, but the drawer is empty. And then it's like children are having a temper tantrum

because they want to have the same level of benefits they've always had and

nobody's gonna give them the money and they don't earn it.

...