Posted on 07/12/2015 1:17:55 PM PDT by BenLurkin
A weekend of high tension that threatened to break Europe in two climaxed on Sunday night at a summit of eurozone leaders in Brussels where the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and President François Hollande of France presented Greece’s radical prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, with an ultimatum.
In what a senior EU official described as an “exercise in extensive mental waterboarding” to secure Greek acquiescence to talks on a third bailout in five years worth up to €86bn (£62bn), the two leaders pressed for absolute certainty from Tsipras that he would honour what was on offer.
...
The Eurogroup document said experts from the troika of creditors – the International Monetary Fund, European Commission and European Central Bank – would be on the ground in Athens to monitor the proposed bailout programme. The trio would also have a say in all relevant Greek draft legislation before it is presented to parliament. Furthermore, the Greeks will have to amend all legislation already passed by the Syriza government this year that had not been agreed with the creditors.
(Excerpt) Read more at theguardian.com ...
I think that what we should do is send our socialists to Greece to help them out by working for free in the turnip fields.
Nothing like a little dirt under the fingernails to open up a socialist mind.
Angela Merkel's boo-boo was bailing out Greece in the first place. German workers are FURIOUS that their tax dollars are being used to bail-out Greece, where the average worker retires at age 50.
In Germany, the average retirement age is over 60.
Merkel's days are numbered.
The Euros advanced these loans knowingly, precisely so this day would come and they could get their tentacles of control into them. There simply is no rational argument that the EU thought Greece could service these debts.
I see the same thing at work here. There was likely a lot of optimism about how Greece would grow once it entered the EU. I suspect that there was also political pressure to lend to them (just as US lenders were pressured to make risky mortgage loans for the sake of diversity). In the case of the EU, the political pressure came from Germany and Brussels.
And Greece took the $$ to finance their Socialist lifestyle in the hope they would never have to pay it back. I hate paying taxes, but I have no sympathy for an entire country that will not pay taxes to support their lifestyle.
So, back to my original point (which looks like you agree with): No good guys.
if Greece fails to hold up its end of the bargain, the banks would own the Parthenon, and could “privatize it” — thereby recovering their funds and potentially making a ton of investment banking fees into the bargain.
Maybe the USA will print more money and bail them out. After all, socialists must stick together.
‘Not humiliate Greece???’ What has Greece done to the Eurozone by lying to get in; and then demanding that they be allowed to continue to skip work, lounge at the café all day, and retire at 50.
“There was likely a lot of optimism about how Greece would grow once it entered the EU.”
Yes,, those EU bankers were SURE that 2500 years of lazy fun in the sun would end. Zorba would set his alarm for 5am and get down to the iphone factory. LOL
The Germans new precisely what they were doing, giving loans that would default in a few years. The goal was to get Greece into the Eurozone at all costs. And to ensure that the EU could ultimately foreclose and tighten their control grip. The EU is little better than loan sharks.
And most disgusting, the EU knows that if they are ever in deep water, they only need to call Uncle Sugar.
Sorry, but this is my fatwa. And there ain’t nothing I can do about it now
Do these bankers really think the Greeks are going to pay that money back on top of the money they already owe?
LOL, the Greeks were too sharp for the EU and German central bankers? Is -that- your argument? The ultimate sharpshooters and sophisticated financiers simply had no ability to ferret out the Greek lies?
Or was the EU central bank a willing participant for their own reasons, and now is “shocked” at the financial condition of Greece? As shocked as when bundles of subprime loans were not really a grade A investment vehicle! LOL
These international bankers surrrrrre are easy for the unsophisticated people to trick.
First, it’s the average American home buyer, and now those wily Greeks.
I hope they never go to West Virginia, they might lose everything!
Maybe Harvard needs a new course in the business school.
“How Harvard and Oxford finance MBAs can avoid being tricked by uneducated people”!
The answer should be obvious. They knew precisely what they were doing and it suited, and still suits their goals.
Any lender “owns” you until you pay off the note. Greece should be no different.
“if Greece fails to hold up its end of the bargain, the banks would own the Parthenon, and could “privatize it””
Whoa,,,, if everyone on earth paid 20 bucks a visit, and went 3 times, that would pay off the 357 Billion!
Wonder why nobody else thought of that idea?
I absolutely agree.
Did the EU have a nefarious scheme? Or did Greece?
In my mind it doesn’t really matter. Greece owes the money...so pay up or shut up.
I really DON'T THINK Germany needs to station the Whermacht were, to defend its position. I doubt they are looking for control. What they want is for their loans to Greece to be paid back.
Under the rules of the Eurozone/EU/ECB, Greece owes this money to their lenders. End of story.
And Greece freely agreed to do this, at the get-go.
The problem is, the Greeks evidently lied when they said this. What they really want now is to walk away from this deal, which they now deny having ever agreed to, for political purposes. They just naturally seem to think they are going to get another baiilout, to live in a world they cannot afford to live in from their own national resources, at the rest of Europe's expense.
The procedure is standard IMF tried and true machinations.
It will also almost certainly involve tariffs or other taxes that are overseen by the big surveyors like SGS, Bureau Veritas or Intertek.
The main beneficiary might be the ECB, but the regulator will be the IMF
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