Posted on 02/16/2015 2:05:21 PM PST by NRx
Greece is on a collision course with the eurozone’s creditor powers after emergency talks ended in acrimony on Monday night, triggering the most serious political crisis since the launch of the euro.
The Leftist Syriza government reacted with fury to eurozone demands that it must stick to the country’s discredited austerity plan, describing the draft text as “absurd and unacceptable”.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
No interest, no principle.
Promise anyone anything to get into power, then whine when reality knocks at the door. Greece, the door is open and you can walk out any time you want. SLAM.
When you lend money to deadbeats, there is a risk that you’ll never see it again. They’re experts at lying.
Europe has to keep Greece in line on the Euro debt, or Spain, Portugal, Italy, and several smaller countries may start doing the exact same thing.
Socialists think that “austerity” is a dirty word because it recognizes that you can’t spend money that you don’t have. Wanna spend more? Produce more.
>> ...Mr Varoufakis [pronounced ‘Euro-phuk-us’, heh heh] wrote in The New York Times that he is not playing academic “game theory” and is not bluffing. “The lines that we have presented as red will not be crossed,” he said...
OOOH! A *Red Line*! Obama must have sent advisors over to Grease... hope they don’t catch that terminal lazy syndrome that’s endemic over there.
I hope Greece pulls out of the EU and collapses the Euro!
“I hope Greece pulls out of the EU and collapses the Euro!”
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More likely Greece staying in the EU would expedite collapse of the Euro. Germany would be foolish to give them a single additional Euro penny let alone the many billions of Euros the Greeks want.
I hope so, too. There will be repercussions for the dollar, I know, but even so, we could use some jollies, yes?
This is what happens when you don’t take democracy seriously.
Politics used to be about selecting the best person for a job. The best person for the job was the person who could get the most efficiency and effectiveness out of each hard-earned taxpayer dollar. That’s not what has been going on in Greece. They just elected a liar. They might just as well have elected Big Bird or SpongeBob.
Venezuela, Greece, Cuba.....they have PAS Governments.....Promise And Steal.
If you look at the numbers Greece hasn’t imposed anything remotely resembling “austerity”. Spending has increased.
No need to blame the current leadership, which was just saying what the public wanted to hear. The problem is that the Greeks just don't want to accept reality. You get the government you deserve. Americans are no different when it comes to our looming debt crisis. We have the advantage of being able to print more dollars, but eventually we face the same fate. Bush gave us the Prescription Drug program expanding Medicare and causing a $7.7 trillion liability and Obama has given us Obamacare, which will cost trillions more. Both Bush 43 and Obama were elected twice.
Greece will very shortly give over its sovereignty to the EU in exchange for continued handouts.
Au contraire, my friend. Greek government spending is down significantly.
Prominent UK economist Roger Bootle summarised the state of play at the end of February 2012:
Since the beginning of 2008, Greek real GDP has fallen by more than 17pc. On my forecasts, by the end of next year, the total fall will be more like 25pc. Unsurprisingly, employment has also fallen sharply, by about 500,000, in a total workforce of about 5 million. The unemployment rate is now more than 20pc. . . . A 25pc drop is roughly what was experienced in the US in the Great Depression of the 1930s. The scale of the austerity measures already enacted makes you wince. In 2010 and 2011, Greece implemented fiscal cutbacks worth almost 17pc of GDP. But because this caused GDP to wilt, each euro of fiscal tightening reduced the deficit by only 50 cents. . . . Attempts to cut back on the debt by austerity alone will deliver misery alone
NY Times, October 12, 2012
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/11/opinion/the-cost-of-protecting-greeces-public-sector.html?_r=0
I think there are four things which the news media and public have not come to grasp about this mess.
1. The amount of debt and economic issues are probably more serious on the average citizen than everyone imagined. If you are a diabetic....you have to use your own savings and pay cash to get insulin. Name any disease, it's serum or pills, and if it's made outside of Greece (90-percent chance), then you will burn up your savings to survive. Since 2009, Greeks have been waiting on the turn-around. It hasn't happened. It might be two decades before some economic change occurs.
2. The truth is, Greece never was ready for the Euro. It may never be ready for it.
3. Once they end their relationship to the Euro and go back to the Drachma....Greeks will find the economy just about the same and most Greeks will be surviving off the dollar or Euro as their real hard currency....rather than the fake Drachma which everyone will be trading with.
4. If you think this January election is the end of the political chaos....I'd take a deep breathe and prepare for another election before the end of the year. This January election doesn't really fix anything....it just resets the clock and makes people think there's still a better chance ahead, where there isn't.
Sounds like New York, California, etc. (when combined with the entitlement army, idiot enviros, and such)
The European Left's candidate for the European Commission presidency, Alexis Tsipras, Friday called for the immediate release of Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams who is been held for questioning in connection with the 1972 murder of Jean McConville. Tsipras called the arrest a "politically inflammatory act against democracy".
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