Posted on 01/05/2015 12:33:17 AM PST by Olog-hai
German Chancellor Angela Merkel is prepared to let Greece leave the eurozone if Greeks elect a government that jettisons the country’s current austerity course, according to German media reports.
The report in the Der Spiegel daily, which cited sources close to the German government, comes as polls show a radical leftist party leading the field three weeks ahead of a snap election in Greece.
The Syriza party of Alexis Tsipras has pledged to reverse reforms imposed by Greece’s international creditors and renegotiate its bailout deal. …
(Excerpt) Read more at thelocal.de ...
Sounds like a reasonable response to me.
The thanks you get.
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.
Greece needs to be cut loose. Plus another fringe countries.
I think Greece has had economic troubles since it got independence in 1821 from the Ottoman Turks
Ireland? No -- it's doing well. It dug itself out of the hole and was very disciplined.
Spain? No, it's improving. They have troubles still, but they are growing economically and have put in strong reforms
Portugal? They are trying hard. They are weak and would always be weak
italy? Maybe.
France? Definitely :-P -- but the latter two aren't "fringe"
Yep, it’s a tradition...more or less.
I worked for a US company which decided to offer up some services and contracts back in 1999...related to the 2004 Olympics. They were going to build a state-of-the-art command and control system for the national government (cops, military, emergency services, everything integrated).
First shocker after they signed the contract was that the Greeks then said all of the employees on the project had to live in Greece (wasn’t in the original contract). So, they shipped off thirty-odd IT people to live out of hotels.
As the delivery date came with the package....the company had been successful and tied everyone into this....more or less dragging them into the modern computer age. Then it came time for Greece to pay the company. It was supposed to be around $320 million. The Greeks decided whoever signed the contract for them....wasn’t authorized, and refused to pay. The company sat there in shock, then hired a lawyer. The last I heard...after a decade of legal fighting in Greece....they’d come to agree to pay $50 million and that was to be the end of the mess.
I doubt if the system is still working, and they’ve probably gone back to white boards, telephones, and walky-talkies.
Who does Greece think they are ... Argentina?
“Let them”? I thought she was stomping on the fingertips that clung to the ledge of union.
It is doubtful that Greece will make economic strides until they go through some structural and cultural changes. There seems to be no work ethic in Greece and people seem to expect something for nothing. When your country has few natural resources and you don't have a comparative advantage for any manufactured product you don't have many choices left. Building an export economy on feta cheese, olive oil, and yogurt won't get you very far.
Just seemed kinda weird that the lead in is “Merkel will let ...”.
Going back to the drachma will improve the economy because they will Immediatly be more competitive. Greece will once again be a reasonable vacation destination. Greek exports will be cheaper. Greece can set its own fiscal and monetary policy and not be shackled to the Euro.
Funny how nobody says that the euro should never have been established in the first place.
Not if one realizes who really controls the European Union and the eurozone. The European Central Bank is in Frankfurt for a reason, after all, and it’s structured after the pattern of the Bundesbank; not to mention that the interest rate structure only benefits the Teutonic bloc.
> Tsipras reiterated his position that Greece’s debt is not sustainable and that the policy followed today is not sustainable either. He explained he will claim the write-down of the largest chunk of the country’s debt through an honest and determined negotiation, so Greece can finally enter a path of growth.
The negotiation will continue in a determined way until the honesty about default can begin.
> “We do not even recognize this agreement and we will not recognize it. So what will they say, you have 15 days to recognize it?”
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/03/syriza-future-greece-europe-radical-left
> ‘The left must combine principle and pragmatism, radical politics and social mobilisation.’ ...These people capture the two sides of the Greek left. On one, the civil war refugees — leftists exiled in barren islands and hostile mountainsides, the imprisoned and executed — who finally found themselves on the winning side.
Wow, the executed must be pretty fired up, like Democrats who continue to vote after death.
http://globaleconomicanalysis.blogspot.com/2015/01/greek-polls-show-syriza-on-cusp-of.html
> Polls Show Syriza on Cusp of Victory; Greek Political Party Analysis; Intentions Matter Not
http://www.tovima.gr/en/article/?aid=664673
> Koutsoumpas: “New Democracy and SYRIZA will continue bailout policies” The Communist Party leader argues that the major parties will both comply with the bailout policies
> “There is no ground for SYRIZA’s cooperation with PASOK, POTAMI or the newly founded Mr. Papandreou’s party,” SYRIZA parliamentary group spokesman Panagiotis Lafazanis said in an interview
Tourism is their number one industry I believe, and if so, it’s for good reason.
Great post.
nice graphic Gideon7 posted in a recent related topic:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/3243444/posts?page=16#16
https://u-tools.com/EuroDebt.jpg
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