Collective insanity
Ping
They won’t pay for the same reason WE won’t pay.....they can’t.
In one Greek town the per capita ownership of Porsche was so high that they won some kind of honorary award from Porsche and representative came out for a meet and greet with the Mayor.
In other words, borrowed money only sometimes must be paid back — depending on the relative wealth of the respective borrower and lender.
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Sad to say but I have in-laws that think that way. I’ve learned the hard way, not to “loan” money to certain people, they will eventually consider it a gift.
Borrow 100,000 Euros, the bank owns you. Borrow 100,000,000 Euros, you own the bank. Gee, what happens if Greece doesn’t pay? Are they gonna repossess Greece?
The problem that Greece has or had, didn’t just happen. This was 40 years in the making. For that length of time, Greece voters kept voting for these LIBERALS, SOCIALISTS and COMMUNISTS politicians, who promised every body that voting for them would give the Greeks a continous prosperity. The retirement age kept getting lower and lower, to the point that GREEKS can retire at age 50, with full retirement pay, equal to their salary. Eventually, the money ran out, and all the Greek government can do is borrow the money. What was it that Maggie Thatcher said about LIBERALS, SOCIALISTS and COMMUNISTS will do then they run out of other people’s money? The time has come to pay the piper, and the Greek government don’t want to pay it.
Im so sick of hearing that some deadline is approaching. It reminds me of that Obama birth cirtificate thing that some African Chief Walawaladingdong kept saying was going to be released in 24 hrs. Just 24 more hours Just 24 more hours!
The money Greece is trying to borrow is to be used to pay back previous loans, it is not an “investment” into business or infrastructure.
If there’s a lot of expensive purchasing lately, it would indicate that all of those loans ended up in the pockets of the elite. And the “little folk” in Greece are supposed to suffer even more to pay back the debt? It’s just like here, in some ways. They got no benefit, yet they’re told “pay up”.
Why?
Becuz they HAVEN’T GOT THE MUNNNIEEE!
The Real question should be ‘who the hell would lend to such deadbeats in the first place’??
ANSWER: We wuvv the EU sooo much—and we wuvv the POWER THAT IT GIVES US even more. So-we keep feeding the dead horse in hopes that it will get up and sing.
Hey, Fritz—got any more spare change??
REALLY—COUGH IT UP!! NOW!
I hate to say it, but I agree with the left on this. If creditors dish out money to people (and countries) without ANY CLUE as to intent to pay it back, then creditors deserve what they get.
In the case of Greece and most 3rd World countries, it is a GIVEN that payback depends on the will of the next leader. If the Germans, or others, want to play that game, they have to be willing to accept the consequences.
VDH’s analysis would have been sound during the last Greek fiscal crisis. However, the misbehavior on the part of the IMF under Dominique Strauss-Kahn at that time, acting in the interests of the Eurozone and Eurozone creditors, rather than following its remit to stabilize national economies, created the current, worse, iteration of the crisis. As Tsipras (in perhaps the only clear-eyed economic analysis I have ever heard or read from a leftist) describes it “an insolvency crisis was treated as an illiquidity crisis”, and the Greek state and Greek people were loaded with yet more debt to let French and German banks get Greek loans off their balance sheets, with no benefit to Greece.
Quite frankly, in view of the long-term misbehavior of Greece that VDH points to, anyone foolish enough to lend the Greek state money (and yes, the fools include the ECB and IMF at this point) deserves to be repaid in new drachma, rather then euros.
Socialism!
Can’t pay.
Won’t pay.
Shouldn’t pay.
Should leave the Euro currency, and if necessary, the EU - at least until their house is in order - move back to the Drachma, default and begin the long process of rebuilding.
It will be hard, no matter which path they choose. Only this path retains sovereignty and provides a pathway to a better future.
Default is nothing new. Spain has done it +18 times. Many other nations have as well.
I don’t get this crisis.
The Greeks should:
(1) Publicly and loudly default on every international debt.
(2) Refuse to leave the European Union.
(3) Continue to operate their economy with the Euro currency. If the Euro Central Bank resists, then supplement with Pounds, Swiss Francs, and US Dollars and aggressively seek cooperation with those Central Bankers.
(4) Make interest payments only to Greek citizens and Greek companies who hold Greek government debt, until some kind of settlement can be negotiated.
(5) Start the long, complicated process of reforming the Greek economy.
This is no longer an economic issue. It is strictly political.
The politics of central EU control over ALL member states.
EU bureaucrat aristocracy wants control and one single sovereign body is a threat to control.
How we got here is irrelevant, where we go from here is the next issue. Oppressive taxes will keep EU control. Lower taxes and growing an economy (for anyone who can figure that out) is the only road to prosperity.