Unstructured Finance

By Katya Wachtel

Yes, Germany and Greece have been in a war of words in the unfolding crisis over the latter’s membership in the euro zone, but this afternoon the two nations face off in a different (and far more entertaining) way: they go head-to-head in the European Championship quarterfinal.

As Reuters’ Alexander Hudson reports from Poland, the setting of tonight’s more-than-just-a-game battle, “When Greece take the football field in the Polish coastal city of Gdansk… the honor of the nation is at stake.” Greece, by the way, has never beaten Germany on the soccer pitch.

Closer to home, with the NBA season now officially over – congrats to our Miami Heat fans – there’s a little more time for some weekend reading…

From New York Magazine:

Cleary Gottlieb attorney Lee Buchheit has the cure for debt-laden Greece, Spain and Italy, writes Jessica Pressler.

From Dealbook:

Is lying different from stealing in matters of securities fraud, Steven Davidoff asks in his column, comparing the crimes of Enron’s Jeffrey Skilling with those of convicted insider traders Rajaratnam and Gupta.

From Fortune:

Italy, like Greece and Spain,  has too much debt and too little growth. But Italy is the 7th-biggest economy in the world, the 4th-largest in Europe, and the 3rd-largest in the euro zone — it is too big to fail, writes Matthew Hedrick.

From the Wall Street Journal:

In Asia, brokers are pitching increasingly complex securities products – so-called  ‘triple and double-deckers’ – to their wealthy investor clients.

And here’s a sampling of curtain-raisers for the Greece v. Germany game:

• NPR: The European Crisis Moves To The Pitch
• Washington Post: Greece hopes for payback against Germany on Euro 2012 pitch
• WSJ:Greece, Germany Gird for Pitch Battle
• And with some absolutely golden quotes (and a great photo of Angela Merkel getting fired up during a Germany game in the 2010 World Cup), Reuters: Euro zone battle moves to the pitch as Germany play Greece