Euro crisis opens old wounds for Greece

[m.lewin92]

A country's economy devastated, unemployment endemic and suicides rising -- this is the reality in Greece, and there is seemingly no end in sight.Greece -- the birthplace of democracy -- is now reliant on eurozone bailouts and subject to political decision-making in Brussels and Berlin.Last week, Athenians marched in the streets to make it clear German Chancellor Angela Merkel -- in her first visit to the Greek capital since 2009 -- was not welcome.

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[EdwardBaiamonte]

A country's economy devastated, unemployment endemic and suicides rising -- this is the reality in Greece, and there is seemingly no end in sight.Greece -- the birthplace of democracy -- is now reliant on eurozone bailouts and subject to political decision-making in Brussels and Berlin.Last week, Athenians marched in the streets to make it clear German Chancellor Angela Merkel -- in her first visit to the Greek capital since 2009 -- was not welcome.

see here for more information please

The Greek liberal fools have to learn to live within their means and stop ripping other people off !!

American liberals need to learn the same thing

 

[Grandma]

A country's economy devastated, unemployment endemic and suicides rising -- this is the reality in Greece, and there is seemingly no end in sight.Greece -- the birthplace of democracy -- is now reliant on eurozone bailouts and subject to political decision-making in Brussels and Berlin.Last week, Athenians marched in the streets to make it clear German Chancellor Angela Merkel -- in her first visit to the Greek capital since 2009 -- was not welcome.

see here for more information please

The Greek liberal fools have to learn to live within their means and stop ripping other people off !!

American liberals need to learn the same thing

Asshat.

 

[Colin]

A country's economy devastated, unemployment endemic and suicides rising -- this is the reality in Greece, and there is seemingly no end in sight.Greece -- the birthplace of democracy -- is now reliant on eurozone bailouts and subject to political decision-making in Brussels and Berlin.Last week, Athenians marched in the streets to make it clear German Chancellor Angela Merkel -- in her first visit to the Greek capital since 2009 -- was not welcome.

see here for more information please

The Greeks have no one but themselves to blame for this disaster. It’s what happens when a nation lets debt get out of control and they’re unable to repay their foreign creditors. The Greek economy has been tanking for decades and when the euro was introduced in 1999 they were desperate to gain entry, primarily as it would reduce their interest rates substantially. Not surprisingly, entry was refused as their debts were too high and inflation was out of control. They applied again in 2002 and by ‘cooking’ the books to make it look as though they were meeting the stringent euro conditions they finally gained entry.

As a eurozone member, they were now able to borrow in euros, thus reducing interest rates from the previous levels of 10% - 18% down to 3% - 2%. However, instead of using this to pay down debt, they threw the opportunity away by vastly increasing public sector pay scales to the extent that wages have almost doubled over the last decade. They’ve also continued to fund one of the highest state pensions in the world. Greek workers receive a state pension equivalent to over 90% of their average salary! Oh, and most retire at fifty. No wonder that labour productivity is 25% lower than the European average! Add to this the fact that tax evasion is endemic among the middle classes and it’s no surprise that the government isn’t receiving anywhere near enough tax revenues to fund its outgoings.

Anyone who believes throwing more money at Greece is going to change things is a fool. Instead of rioting it’s time for the Greeks to man up and EARN their way to prosperity instead of expecting the rest of Europe to fund their shortcomings. **** ‘em is what I say!

 

[Nova78]

Expect to see this creeping crude come over here ,Obama the economic fool is leading us down the same path,writing checks on borrowed money is not the answer,borrowing 30 cents on every dollar spent is ignorant and foolish........

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

Expect to see this creeping crude come over here ,Obama the economic fool is leading us down the same path,writing checks on borrowed money is not the answer,borrowing 30 cents on every dollar spent is ignorant and foolish........

hey the Greeks are rioting in the street now. This means there is real belt tightening going on there . You don't see that here. In fact we seem about to elect a communist who voted to the left of Bernie Sanders to another four year term!!

 

[waltky]

Granny says, "Dat's right - Europe needs to get it's financial house in order...

Global recovery under threat, says OECD
27 November 2012 - The eurozone debt crisis is threatening the global economic recovery, the OECD says

Decisive policy action is needed to ensure the world is not "plunged back into recession", according to the OECD. The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, which represents the world's richest nations, also lowered its growth forecasts. The group's economies will grow by 1.4% next year, rather than the 2.2% forecast in May, it said.

The eurozone recession will also be deeper and more prolonged than previously thought, it added. The group highlighted the so-called US fiscal cliff and the eurozone debt crisis as the biggest risks to the global economy. The fiscal cliff refers to spending cuts and tax rises, designed to reduce the US government's debt levels, that are due to kick in in the new year.

Downgrades

"The world economy is far from being out of the woods," said the OECD's secretary general Angel Gurria. "The US fiscal cliff, if it materialises, could tip an already weak economy into recession, while failure to solve the euro area debt crisis could lead to a major financial shock and global downturn." The OECD cut its growth forecast across its 34 members for this year and next. It also revised down sharply its estimate for the eurozone economy, which it now believes will contract by 0.1% in 2013, rather than grow by 0.9% as forecast in May.

The forecast for growth in the UK next year was cut to 0.9%, down from 1.9% previously. The revised forecasts were published just hours after eurozone finance ministers finally agreed to help debt-ridden Greece. After hours of late-night negotiations, they agreed to cut the country's debts by 40bn euros ($51bn; £32bn) and have paved the way for releasing the next tranche of much-needed bailout loans.

BBC News - Global recovery under threat, says OECD

See also:

Can anyone run the Bank of England successfully?
27 November 2012 - The Bank of England is not an institution in crisis (or, at least, not as far as I can tell).

It has of course been criticised for not providing any decent warning or pre-emptive evasive action, as banks grew to become lethal weapons of mass destruction and markets become dangerously over-heated, in the years before the great crash of 2007-8. But few would argue that its performance was as lamentable as that of the Financial Services Authority in the comparable period. If it has committed a crime, it is perhaps one against good manners: it, in the person of its governor, Sir Mervyn King, has never made an unqualified apology for its sins of omission (Sir Mervyn has said that "with the benefit of hindsight" the bank got it wrong - which seemed more a request for forgiveness than an admission of failure).

That said, it is pretty difficult not to see the Bank of England as an admirable and impressive institution. What I find is that it employs a significantly higher proportion of brainy, independently minded and impressive people than most comparable public sector and public service institutions. It is slightly horrifying, arguably, that among the 26 people it lists as its top executives and policy makers, only one is a woman (who runs a department, human resources, where women are often in charge), and there is not a single member of an ethnic minority. You don't have to be a diversity obsessive to think that the Bank is not fishing in the deepest and widest talent pool.

Even so, few of the 25 middle-aged white men who run the Bank would be seen as mediocre in an intellectual sense - and it is hard to spot the same proportion of competent bosses or leaders in most private-sector or public-sector organisations. So the Bank of England ain't bust, though you might be forgiven for thinking that the chancellor thinks it may be - in that his efforts to recruit a Canadian central banker, Mark Carney, to replace Sir Mervyn went way beyond a conventional trawl for candidates.

When I interviewed Mr Osborne yesterday, he was explicit that Mr Carney was his top choice from the outset. The chancellor has been chasing Mark Carney since February; he kept chasing even after Mr Carney told him privately and in public that he would never do the job; and in the end Mr Osborne agreed to cut the term of office for Mr Carney from eight years to five, and pay him what looks a good deal more than what Sir Mervyn received, even after adjusting for Sir Mervyn's fabulous pension arrangements.

More http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-20509027

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

Euro crisis opens old wounds for Greece

Except now the German wounds are not from killing and enslaving them, just from trying to bail them out of their liberal socialist mess.

The Greeks are a little ungrateful for their extreme good fortune to say the least.

 

[Franticfrank]

Except now the German wounds are not from killing and enslaving them, just from trying to bail them out of their liberal socialist mess.

The Greeks are a little ungrateful for their extreme good fortune to say the least.

I agree with you in a way - the Greeks made this mess themselves and the Germans are the ones trying to bail them out of it. Still, one can sympathise with the young Greeks who see no future in their country and view the Germans as the ones responsible for the austerity. I'm sure they're thankful for the financial assistance but not the difficult strings attached. Looking at statistics, the rest Europe seem satisfied with Germany's efforts. . 78% of Greeks view Germany negatively but most other countries are appreciative.

 

[EdwardBaiamonte]

I'm sure they're thankful for the financial assistance but not the difficult strings attached.

the sad irony is that the USA is worse off than Greece because we don't have Germany to force us to live within our means!! Instead we have a communist president who voted to the left of Bernie Sanders who wants to dig us into an ever deeper hole by eliminating the debt ceiling, spending more, and printing money at will through his treasury department!!