and cowbell.Maybe the talks fell apart because it was all Greek to them
Why on earth is that protest sign written in English ? Outside agitators ?
Gosh, what happens when you run out of other people’s money? You become Greece where your only ‘threat’ is to default on your debt and seek loans from Russia and China. Guess what, Greece, when you don’t repay, those aren’t loans, those are gifts, and you’ve got pretty much nothing that either Russia or China wants.
This isn’t really that hard. You slash your cradle to grave health budget by half. You slash your inane 13 month government salaries to a mere 12 months. You cut vacations to JUST 3 weeks rather than 6-8 weeks. You make the people’s employees contribute to their health care costs and pension costs. You LEAD by showing how the government can clean up their act, and then that will trickle through your society.
Or, well, you do what you’re doing, and still end up doing the same thing, as you’ve run out of other people’s money, and no one is lining up to give you more.
Time to let the Greeks shift for themselves. They have been leeches on the rest of the world for far too long. They act like a country full of children unwilling to make the hard choices to fix their own problems, preferring to live off of the productive countries of the world. Screw them!
Greece has no economy to speak of. Never did. In the first place, there never were a hell of lot of Greeks. In the second place, Greece has a pretty lousy infrastructure. No roads, No trains, no airports, or at least very rudimentary ideas of those amenities. Same as in ancient Greece. You want to visit cousin Cristoforos on Lesbos, you're taking a boat and probably walking to the boat, if the bus crapped out.
Sure, Athens is hot stuff, and there is an awful lot of tourist traffic, beyond that, the Greeks sell each other olives. The problem is that the Greeks are very sophisticated people and want to live the sophisticated euro-lifestyle ... sort as if they were Swiss, German, or Parisians. They want top-flight medical care, they want 60 days vacation, they want old-age pensions, they want unemployment insurance, they want a secure government job without too much work, they want a car, they want a summer cottage, they want wardrobes, they want to eat out in fancy restaurants, they want the kids in college ... on and on. Hey the Swedes live great. The Norwegians live great.... why the heck not us?
But this cannot happen in a country with a basically weak, or even no economy to speak of. That is, unless some generous foreigners care to subsidize it in some way. And that's what the EU did for a set period of years: It subsidized Portugal, Ireland, and Greece with massive cash infusions every year. Billions of Euros, after Billions of Euros. Newsflash! When these subsidies ended, there was no more spare cash for all those nice things that the citizens of the poorer euro-countries had begun to get used to ... and now depend upon. And they still had lousy economies.
Portugal? same problem as Greece... maybe not quite as bad. Ireland? Same problem, not as bad because they used the EU subsidy money a bit more wisely. Italy? onvcce an EU donor nation, now definitely same problem. But they have a lot more people, a lot lot bigger economy than Greece ... they might just scrape by .... barely. Spain? Loonie Left in charge ... economy potentially great ... but hurting badly because of Loonie Left. Pay attention American students. Call these countries the laboratory for Socialism 101.
As an old English woman once said:
BTW, all of the above mentioned countries suffering mightily with Third World immigrants ... legal and illegal ... they want in on the benefits which are drying up fast! Making a lot of the folks very angry.
Prediction: a bit of anarchy, followed by despotism. Both words from the Greek, you know?
and cowbell.The EU countries would be STUPID to give the Greeks a single additional Euro cent.
Kick Greece out of the Euro zone. They have gotten enough of a handout from the rest of Europe.
another perspective, from the economist
what is the collateral on these loans?
if there is no collateral, then perhaps the problem is with the loaners.
Greece needs a Pinochet type figure.
Greece needs to bail out of the Euro and the Eurozone. Default the debt and go back to basics