This year is an Olympic year. So it is quite appropriate that this year is all about hurdling. Financial market
participants are understandably jittery given the Global Financial Crisis and European Debt Crisis that have
dominated attention since 2007.
The good news is that so far in 2012 the hurdles have been cleared. Private sector creditors to Greece needed to agree to a debt deal and that hurdle was successfully cleared. The Greek Parliament also needed to agree to the debt deal and then the EU and IMF had to sign off on the deal before committing to the €130 billion bail-out package.