IF YOU want to be scared, truly terrified, listen to Mark J. Grant. He might be right. For two years, Grant, a managing director based in Florida at a regional investment bank, has been predicting the bankruptcy of Greece and a cascade of chaos across the global economy, attracting quite a following on Wall Street.

''Greece will be forced to return to the drachma and devalue, and the default will cause bank runs and money flowing into Germany and the United States as the only viable safe haven bets,'' he declared the day before Sunday's Greek elections. ''Greece will default because there is no other choice regardless of anyone's politics.''

He then walked through the falling dominoes: ''It will hit the (European Central Bank), the banks on the other side of the derivatives contracts, all of the Greek banks who are really in default at present and being carried by Europe as well as the nation, and the Greek default will spread the infection in many places that we cannot imagine because so much is hidden and tucked away in the European financial system.''

[link to www.theage.com.au]