An economy that can be compared to the Titanic is bad for Greece, but good for the dollar.

Greece’s Finance Minister George Papaconstantinou set an ominous tone yesterday by admitting his nation’s public spending “is out of control,” and warned that fixing it would be like trying to change “the course of the Titanic.”

As European finance ministers struggled to turn the situation around, investors brought the euro skidding close to a nine-month low against the dollar.

Emboldened by a soaring greenback, traders here focused on bad-news bets against the euro, as well as shoring up portfolios with safer US stocks.

Greece’s debt crisis continued to fan fears of a stalled global recovery while finance ministers from all 27 nations of the European Union convened their big summit today on a wide range of problems, with Greece topping the list. Analysts expect European ministers to produce a rescue plan for Greece, but no details have emerged yet.

The EU has given Greece 30 days, until March 16, to announce steps to help control its deficit.

Most investors in Europe held their ground yesterday in flat trading. Markets in Asia and the US were closed for separate holidays.

Wall Street hopes to rally stocks out of losing territory, where they’ve lingered for more than a week.

Analysts expect the dollar to keep rising against the euro, since Greece’s bailout crisis could sap the euro zone of its strength.

Economist Otmar Issing, one of the founders of the European Central Bank, warned that bailing out Greece would strike a “major blow” to the euro’s credibility.

“The viability of the whole framework — nothing less — is at stake,” Issing wrote in yesterday’s Financial Times.

Speculators have driven down the euro to $1.36 from its high of around $1.50 in December.

EU officials are investigating whether Greece violated treaties and EU regulations by using esoteric currency swaps — concocted off the books by Wall Street firms, including Goldman Sachs — to hide some of its public debt from Europe’s central bank.

Greece’s finance minister blamed speculators for exaggerating Greece’s debt worries, saying Greece’s economic output is just over 2 percent of the euro area’s total, and a default would not create a problem for the continent.

“Any country is prey and will be prey to speculative forces,” he said. “Today it’s Greece, tomorrow it could be another country.”

Meanwhile, Dubai’s debt crisis rose anew yesterday as some investors speculated that Dubai may repay creditors less than demanded to resolve its total $22 billion debt load. Dubai denied the speculation.

“The theme of sovereign debt risk is likely to remain on investors’ agendas as fresh rumblings in Dubai make clear,” said strategist Neil Mackinnon of VTB Capital.