I have to admit that i haven't been paying particular attention to the Greek crisis but from the bits and pieces that i have heard, it's all a bit of a minefield.
The bare facts as far as i can grasp them is that Greece is in danger of defaulting on the loan they received last year.
This would mean disaster for the French and German banks who dug deep to loan the money to Greece and the American financial institutions who insured the French and German banks against Greece defaulting. In short, an almighty crash all around.
The most discussed option is lending Greece another £120bn but the choice of easing debt by plying them with even more debt seems like a crazy solution. The austerity measures bought in after the last loan has led to almost daily rioting in the Greek streets and a new loan will come with even stricter cost cutting.
Another choice is kicking Greece out of the single currency but apparently that would cause even greater chaos and end in default anyway and the resulting crash for the Germans, French and Americans.
All in all it's a massive mess and the rest of the PIIGS are not looking very healthy either so it all adds up to the financial crisis being deeper and longer than anybody seemed to think.
If Europe is going to run a single currency, the halfway mish mash that we seem to have at the moment needs to be sorted so countries hand over the power of their economies to a central government. This part where countries run their own economies isn't working which is why you have the likes of France and Germany bailing out places like Ireland and Greece.
It has to be all or nothing and everyone packs up and goes back to their own currencies and you are responsible for your own economy.
I was always a big fan of Euro and thought Britain should have joined at the outset but looking at things now, i was wrong and we shouldn't touch it with a bargepole because we would be stung for billions and join the Germans and French taxpayers growing more and more angry at being asked to provide the money to the likes of Greece who want to have their cake and eat it.
5 comments:
The Americans must be laughing at the way the E.U. is imploding.
I had hoped that the E.U. would become a real force in the world, one that would counteract American imperialism.
Instead NATO members like France and Italy, etc, have joined with America in its attempt to control the world hence splitting the Union.
Sadly, Australia and Britain have thrown in their lot with the U.S.
So things are a mess, just as they are in the U.S.
Then humans usually make a mess of everything they touch!
I'm fairly bemused by some of the current headlines announcing 'Greek crisis may infect banking sector'... It's true of course, but in the first instance it was actually the other way round!
The Greeks violated the terms of the EU treaty by running a deficit that was over four times higher (as a share of GDP) than permitted. It wasn't only due to incompetence, there was fraud in there too, as the likes of Goldman-Sachs were employed to use the derivatives markets to concel the real level of their national debt.
Papandreou is busy spinning the situation as Greece being unfairly targeted, but he undoubtedly thinks he has to say something this nonsensical in order to try and sell his new economic program to his people i.e. cutting wages and raising taxes.
"The Americans must be laughing at the way the E.U. is imploding."
I doubt it, David. Just as a weak US economy impacts badly upon Europe, anyone with a sincere interest in US economic health wants a solvent and healthy EU market to sell to.
Cheezy, the U.S. might want a healthy E.U. but it does not want a militarily powerful E.U. to rival its military/economic dominance.
The U.S. is driven by the need to control the world for its own benefit. Countries like Britain and Australia fan this 'control' obsession which, one day, will result in WW3 and nuclear war!
Q, did America really invade Iraq and Afghanistan to defend them? Surely you are joking. Who was it defending them from?
America is engaged in trying to achieve world domination. It even spends money it doesn't have to try to achieve this selfish goal.
The whole world is sick of America and its two-faced imperialism. Why don't you get your psychotic leaders to bring all the Armed Forces home and keep them there.
The whole world would cheer!
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