Posted on 2/23/2012, 8:37:41 AM by zeestephen
".....it's likely a new Greek government with the support of the people will just tell its creditors to shove it."
(Excerpt) Read more at money.msn.com ...
Restoring the drachma makes no sense to me.
If you default on 100% of your debts, there is no need to devalue your currency, or even to change it.
The idea that a devalued drachma will rescue the Greek economy by bringing in hordes of tourists is lame.
Just keep the Euro - or, at least refuse to voluntarily give it up.
The Euro is clearly a superior currency to the drachma.
Maintain government and bank liquidity by selling 7 day Euro notes at 1% per week until tax revenues increase and the short term crisis passes.
...And when the economy is booming, who needs austerity?
So in other words, according to Keynesian chuckleheads like that assclown at the NY Times, there is NEVER a right time for austerity. Nobody thinks about it when times are good, and you can't do it when time are bad because it will lead to turmoil.
It's ALWAYS good to spend spend spend. It's no wonder all the government scum love to pretend Keynes had a clue.
The Economist covered the topic in this week’s mag with similar numbers. There’s speculation a Right-leaning govt will ensue suggesting some sense of financial responsibility.
The bailouts are intended to keep the Euro-banks afloat, little or none of it will actually reach Greece.
The problem is the same as the USA: more debt does not cure debt. Buying your own debt, like writing checks to yourself does not actually increase your checking account, or in the case of a nation it destroys the value of what is there – the currency
Gas in the USA is going up because the currency is being destroyed. The same is true for groceries, which is why the contents of boxes are decreasing while the size of the cardboard stays the same or the price goes up. It is a tax on the poor, thanks to Obama.
The end of this mess is still either 1930's depression or Wiemar.
The EU is a dead entity walking.
LLS
LLS
Spend, spend, spend until the effete elite in government control your every move. Greece is burnt toast.
They should just repudiate the debt, as should we.
The Euro is a currency without a nation.
United Europe is a pacifist/utopian/socialist pipe dream which would have been better stillborn.
These people have nothing in common.
“These people have nothing in common.”
____________________________________________
I agree.
I left Slovakia just a week after they went on the Euro, even though they were a member state for a few years while I was there.
There is so much diversity in European cultures.
Central Europe alone has Slavs, Hungarians, and Romanians,
all with distinct language groups.
Just imagine if Mexico and all of central America became
united with the now USSA.
U.S.E.D. United Socialist European Democracies & U.S.E.L.E.S.S United Scum-sucking European Leeches Enabling Statists & Socialists...
...and I didn’t even mention UNaccountable bureaucrats (more socialists) with MANDATES.
Wake up America. DEFUND socialist collectives, foreign and domestic.
Who can afford these parasites?
(closer to home)...FUBO
Selling 7 days notes at 1% to whom? That constitutes a further bailout. Who will want to buy them knowing this might be the one they can’t pay without the ECB lending them more. Is their economy them to be based on the expectation of more aid?
I don’t even know what the euro is superior to the drachma means. Are you speaking of exchange rates because if you are then it is superior to the dollar as well. What really matters is which currency is superior for Greece at this moment. They cannot print euros. They can print drachma. They don’t export enough to get in anywhere near enough euro’s hence the tourism statement. It’s a large part of their economy and therefor is a large source of euro’s and foreign currencies.
Last this crisis is not short term. Its been decades in the making. Way too many people worked for the government which was financing salaries and pensions by borrowing against economic numbers that were very simply made up. The Greek economy was a lie. Their economy is shrinking by leaps and bounds. Even with aid and more aid the plan is for them to only reach a 120% debt to gdp ratio by 2020. Thats 8 more years. No sir. There is nothing short term about this.
The coverage at NPR has really shifted on Greece. They are now hitting pretty hard on the concept that the economic problems in Greece are solid evidence of the failure of Capitalism.
Yup. Free Markets are very, very bad. Greece proves it. The communists in Greece are about to make their move -- more government control of the economy, a stronger welfare state, higher taxes: these are the things that will fix Greece, and ultimately fix Europe.
Here's the bottomline:
Karl Marx thought that an impoverished country, with a miserable working class, would be ripe for Proletarian revolution. So far, we've never seen that. Czarist Russia had problems, but they did not have a real Proletarian population that drove their Bolshevik revolution.
Greece now has an impoverished middle class, angry educated people who either cannot find work, or cannot survive on what they earn. Their middle class is basically gone -- all they now have are Proletarians (and a rich political class).
Greece is going to have a big armed struggle as they are forcibly transitioned to something like Stalinism.
In Greece its as likely the communist party picks up much more power. As this article points out the next group of elected officials could very well say bye bye and default. Those elections are in months. I would think campaigning on a lets leave the euro they’re killing us platform would go over well with the populace.
The Greek economy doesn’t generate nearly enough to cover obligations. We here always argue for less government and this is the reason why. Now that Greece is demonstrating some fiscal restraint their economy is plummeting. They are too far gone for fiscal sanity. The economy was based on fake numbers. Now instead of being a good thing they are at a point where every job lost simply reduces money spent with all the bad implications for their economy.
This is a perfect lesson for us. When the government becomes too large a portion of the economy disaster is inevitable.
Nice to sneak in that last sentence. Ha. Just imagine indeed.
Is there someplace i can read the argument at NPR? The failure of Greece has nothing to do with capitalism and everything to do with fake numbers to maintain a socialist state. I can’t begin to think how they can come to that conclusion.
The Greeks need to get out of the EU. They need to devalue their currency and cut spending, especially their crazy social benefits.
They need to go full default on their debt and re-organize their finances to deal with the debt long term.
The fundamental issue is that the Greeks do not have the national will to do it.
Yes you can. Who goes to work for NPR? They are a self-selected group of delusional individuals who think they are educated, socially aware, and champions of social justice. They are absolutely and unequivocally wrong in their conclusions and world view, but they aren't open-minded enough to begin to look at that. They are truly among the most ignorant in our society, which makes it ironic that they actually think they are the ‘knowledgeable’.
I remember my first exposure to someone like this, at a university. I came from a blue collar background, and knew what the reality of a working life was, but she was convinced she needed to ‘educate’ me. She regurgitated the same old crap about how wonderful Marxism was, and ‘wouldn't it be wonderful if we all shared everything’, and ‘it just hasn't been implemented correctly’....etc. etc..
I didn't realize then how dangerous people like her were.
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