Economic Outlook: March is haunting Greece

The financial stakes in Greece are heading higher with a target $19 billion in bonds set to mature in March.

Greece has not just been limping along; it has been plodding along from paycheck to paycheck, which is to say each bailout disbursement from the European Union just gets it past the next bill that comes due.

At the end of December, Greece managed to pay off $6.5 billion in maturing obligations. But the next hurdles are far more painful and will test Europe's resolve on settling the Greek question all the more.

"If we do not make the necessary adjustments, it is to be taken for granted that we cannot expect that the other EU countries and international organizations will continue to finance a country that does not adjust to reality and does not tackle its problems," Prime Minister Lucas Papademos told a gathering of business leaders this week, The Washington Post reported.

The latest number to be bandied about is $200 billion -- the amount of debt Greece needs to restructure. The plan is for Greece to find creditors willing to write off half the debt by using the simple threat of reminding them that if they don't comply it could be worth zero pretty soon.

In the trade, that's called volunteering. Papademos, however, does not appear to measure the country's crisis by dint of how much denial might be convenient. He warned business leaders a "disorderly default" was in the cards in March if government costs are not trimmed significantly.

And all this hinges on the European Union's willingness to rally once again behind a new bailout fund.

In so many words: Good luck with that.

In international markets Thursday, the Nikkei 225 index sank 0.83 percent while the Shanghai composite index lost 0.97 percent. The Hang Seng index in Hong Kong rose 0.46 percent while the Sensex in India lost 0.16 percent.

In Australia, the S&P/ASX 200 gave up 1.08 percent.

In midday trading in Europe, the FTSE 100 index in Britain lost 0.17 percent while the DAX 30 in Germany shed 0.29 percent. The CAC 40 in France lost 0.73 percent while the Stoxx Europe 600 index dropped 0.47 percent.