Mass Delusion among Greece’s Far Left: Victorious Syriza wants Greece to skip out on its debts.

National Review ^ | 01/26/2015 | Tom Rogan

[blueunicorn6]

You could make a fortune selling magic lamps in Greece.

[goldstategop]

Greece has no hope of paying back its debts in the next five or ten years.

That’s even with further austerity.

Without economic growth to generate more revenue, the country can’t maintain its standard of living much less than to repay creditors.

Its clear the bailout package will be have to be reworked and Greece will need more time to pay its debts.

The alternative is bankruptcy and a Greek exit from the eurozone, which no one really wants.

All we can hope is cooler heads prevail in both Athens and Brussels.

[Steve_Seattle]

"The left is celebrating prematurely and already overstating their victory but like François Hollande in France they will just feed the rise of the right in Europe when they fail spectacularly."

I've maintained for years that the goal of the left is actually to go so far left as to provoke a reaction from the right, and then to blame the right for the nasty consequences.

[gunsequalfreedom]

Pretty much all the entrepreneurs have left and the only people left making millions are in league with the government. One of the few results from socialism and communism that you can count on is the pie shrinks while portions get more uneven.

I'm going to have to agree with that. Well put.

[Rummyfan]

Just consider what Syriza proposes: significant increases in government spending, a rise in the minimum wage and in pensions,

Sounds wonderful. But... Where's the money coming from?

[pierrem15]

Worked for our banks, didn’t it?

[pierrem15]

It wasn't a delusion, it was a lie-- they've known all along that default was inevitable, they simply lied long enough to con the German voters and cover their own positions, leaving the German taxpayer and the ECB on the hook.

Same as what our banks did with TARP, etc.

[pierrem15]

Portugal, Ireland, Italy

[Cyman]

The German bankers are buying up Europe with loans that can’t be paid back.

That statement makes no sense whatsoever.

[sphinx]

The German bankers are buying up Europe with loans that can't be paid back.

There is a simple solution to that problem. Stop borrowing money. I don't think ruthless German bankers are putting a gun to anyone's head.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

Truthfully, if they skip their debts, it will likely work. Argentina has defaulted eight times in 200 years, the last time in 2001.

Importantly, the last time it had to default, it didn’t want to, but had to because while it could pay most of its debtors, it couldn’t pay for a giant hedge fund that had speculated on Argentina. That somehow Argentina became responsible for.

In any event, this demonstrates what will happen if Greece defaults. It may take a decade for others to start loaning to them again, but they will.

[grania]

There is a simple solution to the problem. Stop borrowing money

It isn't the average citizens who are borrowing money. Its government leaders making the decisions who benefit from it. It's the same in the US. Government QE and bailouts and unsustainable debt has destroyed the middle class. Meanwhile, the elite have benefitted beyond imagination from it.

[sphinx]

Political leaders are borrowing money primarily to buy votes via unsustainable social and business subsidy arrangements. They skim some to line their own pockets, to be sure, but it is the structure of state spending that is threatened. If simple graft were the problem, there would be no issue: stop borrowing, and let the crooked pols defer their payoffs. But it’s not so easy when pensions, public employee salaries, welfare benefits, student loans, etc. can’t be paid. The same thing will happen when the U.S. hits the wall.

[Toddsterpatriot]

Our banks welshed on their debts?

[Toddsterpatriot]

leaving the German taxpayer and the ECB on the hook.

Same as what our banks did with TARP, etc.

Our banks paid back TARP. The Treasury made tens of billions in profit.

[Balding_Eagle]

It means the banks are loaning money to people who can’t pay it back, and eventually the bank will own the collateral.

It was said in shorthand up thread.

[bert]

economic fundamental......... you can’t get money from a stone

corollary........ you can’t collect a judgement from a dead man