Re: Eurozone will collapse...
 

Greek Finance Minister

Re: Eurozone will collapse...
 

The finances of Greece were in trouble long before joining the Euro. Eg How was it ever sustainable for hairdressers to retire at 55 or for unmarried women(sexist to begin with) to inherit their parents pensions, ie that's 2 or 3 incomes:shocked:? The list goes on and on and that is before you get into collecting taxes.

Re: Eurozone will collapse...
 

So, in one short sentence:

- He begins to invite Greeks to think the Euro is not a good thing after all
- He doesn't quite say it's impossible to get out

Of course, they can't leave until the exit plan is complete. If the markets get even a moment's notice, the resulting stampede for the exits would cripple Greece instantly. Deposit flight is already at very worrying levels as it is.

They will be getting all their ducks in a row, printing currency and planning to prevent money leaving the country from the moment Grexit is announced.

Re: Eurozone will collapse...
 

Re: Eurozone will collapse...
 

Makes you wonder who on Earth would be stupid enough to invite them into a club with an unswerving commitment to a single currency and rigid monetary policy?? :confused:

:rolleyes:

Re: Eurozone will collapse...
 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-32989534

Re: Eurozone will collapse...
 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-33009034

Administrative difficulties?? :rofl:

It seems to me that a lot of people are in denial.

Re: Eurozone will collapse...
 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-33136664

I can see all this stirring up resentment which will not be forgotten in a very long time.

Re: Eurozone will collapse...
 

It's just winding me up now. The Eurozone seem to be demand unrealistically punitive conditions on a deal. A 1% surplus? It's clearly ridiculous. Cut them more slack with their repayments and the debt but insist that they institute real reforms. It's clear Greece won't be able to pay them back any time soon so it's better to try and force them into actions that will stabilise the country until such time repayment looks more promising.

That said I don't think Greece has been serious about addressing the systemic problems in their economy and public sector and in that respect it doesn't really matter if they stay or leave the Eurozone. The problems will remain. They could devalue their currency all they like but no one is going to lend to a country that has defaulted on their debts and shows on desire to avoid such problems in the future.

Re: Eurozone will collapse...
 

I predict cartoons of a great big German jackboot full of Euros squashing starving Greek peasants.

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Yawn! How often do they think they can kick the can down the road? :rolleyes:

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Crossing threads here but I wonder how the Greeks would fare re. immigration if they quit the EU. I suppose they could decline to take any and pass the problems to someone else but I imagine the boat loads would still arrive on their shores.

Greek Tragedy
 

Why are we standing by whilst Greece is humiliated? Why don't all EU Countries re-direct their foreign aid handouts to Greece? Yes, Greece needs to help itself but it needs a helping hand. Another one.

And now an entreaty a la Aragorn at the Black Gates in LOTR:

I urge you, men of The West, stand with Greece as she stands with us; she has gifted us democracy, culture and nice holidays with ouzo and the zorba's dance. We should offer a beacon of hope to our friends, to our own kind and in the name of all that is good.

Or continue sending money to Africa and Asia to line the pockets of despots.

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Not too sure about some politics but I think we are better off outside the euro.

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Couldn't really make it up, could you? As part of the conditions to keep the Greek economy going they want a string of privatisations and measures that will cripple its already non-existent ability to sustain its debt burden.

It looks less like an attempt to actually resolve the issue and more like an attempt to asset strip a country. I appreciate that Germany has been prospering at the expense of Greece, et al, for a while but this is just a little too obvious.

The bailouts, and the new cash, are nothing to do with the welfare of Greece. They are purely about shifting bad debt from the balance sheets of private banks to those of EU and Eurozone taxpayers.

The EU's horrific corporatism shines through here. Brown reduced our ability to oppose this corporatism via the Lisbon Treaty, the Lib Dems naively think a 9% voting share can oppose it, Labour want in at any cost, and the party line from the Conservatives is to treat the EU membership referendum as a purely political exercise to score points.

Not that surprising given they seem to treat most things as political, rather than practical, exercises, and are cut from the same corporatist cloth as the EU with only the methods of forwarding corporatism being different.

---------- Post added at 15:54 ---------- Previous post was at 15:49 ----------

Without question. Our economy would've been an even bigger mess had we been in the Euro.

The Euro is a currency largely by Germany, for Germany, and sod the rest of the Eurozone.

---------- Post added at 15:57 ---------- Previous post was at 15:54 ----------

Well, it needs a helping hand rather than being loaded with debt to pay off Eurozone banks who lent it money in the past so that they don't have to suffer the consequences of the bad loans they made.

The Greek bailouts have been nothing of the sort. They have been Greek creditor bailouts. A small fraction of the money has actually gone to Greece.

Moral hazard for the banks completely gone. They can lend however they like knowing the taxpayer will pick up the tab, so they can continue to act like asshats, pay themselves huge bonuses based on the dodgy loans, and pass the bill when it goes bad to taxpayers. A great deal indeed.