Greece....how can they...

Discussion in 'Economics' started by syswizard, Feb 13, 2012.

  1. Crispy

    Crispy

    I should have been more clear. I was referring to small self sufficient family farms. Not commercial business. The people who feed themselves. But yes, there is disparity for sure.
     
    #21     Feb 14, 2012
  2. It is a very good piece... Grim reality, with occasional glimmers of hope here and there. That's probably what life is like.
     
    #22     Feb 14, 2012
  3. morganist

    morganist Guest

    I guess. I think it is just saying people will go back to how they lived pre second world war.
     
    #23     Feb 14, 2012
  4. Humpy

    Humpy

    Like the song says " one day older and deeper in debt"

    It's capitalism gone mad. The many suffer so the few have got so much money they can't spend it all.

    or

    was it those socialists over spending again ?

    a bit of both imho
     
    #24     Feb 14, 2012
  5. No, you are of course wrong and it seems you have no idea how the EU works. Please do not make false analogies.

    When Greece joined the EU they were offered money packages to reduce their agricultural production so other countries could compete with the Greek cheap products. They were offered incentives to destroy farmland in exchange for cash to buy German cars. As a result the high current account deficit.

    When they got the euro they lost the right to devalue currency and be competitive, they were left with reduced farmland, privatized industries bought by Germans and cash incentives not to grow certain products so that Spanish, Italians and other countries can have a competitive advantage. The Greek politicians accepted all that possibly in exchange for positions and support from the EU while the country current account balance was growing along with the debt.

    Similar situations happened in other countries. The result was Germany owing the Greek Telecommunications, main Athens Airport and other key businesses they bought by forcing Greeks to do privatizations in the name of free markets while keeping their own industry under heavy government control.

    The story is much more complicated and it shows the way the Germans handled power within the EU and drive other countries to default with the objective of buying them cheap and getting their resources.

    Also, some of you do not know that Germany defaulted in 1952 (I think then) and Greece was one of the poor and destroyed countries by Nazis then that actually shared the cost of the funding to rebuild Germany.

    Germany still owes Greece about half a trillion dollars from war reparations and refuses to pay it.
     
    #25     Feb 14, 2012
  6. Eight

    Eight

    Greece owes so much it's impossible for them to ever pay it.. They also have a history of defaulting a few times per century so who loaned them so much that it's twice their GNP?

    Are there intervention teams that can operate on an international level? You trick the leaders of Greece into going to a meeting and when they get there all the other countries leaders have prepared letters that they read out loud about how loved they are but if they won't stop being credit addicts they are getting cut out of everybody's lives...
     
    #26     Feb 14, 2012
  7. GTS

    GTS

    Its really hard to tell from your post which side of the issue you stand on, could you make your biases more clear?
     
    #27     Feb 14, 2012
  8. noone3

    noone3

    Thank you! I could have not put these facts more accurately.
    This is exactly what has been happening for the last 10+ years
    As for the war reparations, you are 100% right but I never understood why they were never claimed and collected.
     
    #28     Feb 14, 2012
  9. noone3

    noone3

    These are facts, not biases
     
    #29     Feb 14, 2012
  10. asia stated they're not going to bail anyone out from europe. Western control has very little to do with it.
     
    #30     Feb 14, 2012