Greece....how can they...

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

  1. d08

    d08

    There's literally no point of you posting articles in French to an English forum, topics like these can't be easily machine translated.
    Greece.org isn't a viable website, the opinion of one French economist doesn't make it valid either. Eastern Europe suffered much more under both occupations, it isn't even comparable.
    It's of course funny that Greeks need to go as far back as the 1940s to justify their out of control spending.
     
    #61     Feb 15, 2012
  2. Not the point. The site is talking about a wartime loan that has yet to be repaid. That's a legal obligation, it's not reparations. With interest it easily covers Greece's upcoming obligation.
     
    #62     Feb 15, 2012
  3. d08

    d08

    How much has Greece gotten as subsidies over the years, from the EU budget. And you know who the main contributor to the budget is, right?
    While clearly the numbers differ, that has to be taken into account.
    The half a trillion number is published only by one French economist, I wouldn't take it at face value.
    The Greeks falsified numbers to gain entry into the Eurozone, that's why the uproar from the north is happening now. Those "evil" germans, finns and dutch. Right.

    Interesting read:
    http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2012/feb/15/eurozone-debt-crisis-greece-eurozone-gdp
     
    #63     Feb 15, 2012
  4. Think of it this way: 3.5 bil USD at 3% would compound to 18.87 bil right now. Convert to euros, and it winds up worth 14.51 bil. Almost exactly the amount in the March refinancing.
    Now, if Germany is really serious about not accepting a Greek default and wanting to keep the eurozone together, seems like an easy bit of math. If not, not.
     
    #64     Feb 15, 2012
  5. noone3

    noone3

    Dont be naive, of course no one really thinks that this debt owed to Greece from Germany is the solution to the problems. However, some facts were questioned and this is minimal proof (among other links provided) that, indeed, there is an obligation pending. The meaning of it is more idealistic than financial. This is common sense!

    The problem is fundamental of course, and if you scratch the surface and read the common news...of course you will think that the "people of Greece stole the money", and they lived happily while taking advantage of European funds etc etc. I would like to believe that people in this forum are a little smarter than that and the purpose of this topic would be to dig a little more for what truth could be hidden behind the headlines that we watch on TV such as CNN etc.

    I have been watching a lot of news channels who throw the blame on avg Joe for taking a position as a civil servant in exchange for her vote, or not printing a receipt when making a sale (tax evasion) etc etc. And OF COURSE these are wrong actions and part of the problem that brought Greece to today's situation. But the weight of it is so SMALL that it is graphic and questionable to even talk about it today. The big fish have cost the government's balance to be in such a deficit, and only a few families including those of politicians have been benefiting for this situation for the past 10 years (actually it is more than that but lets talk about the time that Greece has joined the EUR currency).
    Olympic Games, Siemens, other German scandals, etc etc

    If we want to add value to a thread like this I think that we should stop blaming the people and start looking for the reasons. Meanwhile, everyone can position themselves in the stock market as they choose. This does not change the reality

    Yes, Germany WANTED Greece to get into the eurozone even with cooked books. They knew all along and it was fine by them!
    Yes, they bribed all kinds of key people in order to make the German sales!
    Yes, the people of Greece should have known better, united, and over-thrown previous governments. But they didn't! And now they will pay the price.
    But lets spare the pity for the Germans as Greeks was the best thing that happened to them!
     
    #65     Feb 15, 2012
  6. You are an idiot it seems. No country benefits from giving up their right to print their own currency. Greece and other nations were cheated with the dream and ideology of a federalized united Europe but in exchange the Germans ripped them off and their sole purpose was running surpluses.

    You must also be an idiot not to know that countries like Greece were brutally destroyed by Germans, who burned villages and even raped pregnant women as a recent trial in Hague showed.

    Are you refusing the Holocaust by the way? You must be German.

    Even Bulgaria as an ally of Germany paid war reparation to Greece but the Germans have not paid their dues for stealing the Greek gold during the world.

    But you are the biggest idiot of all because it is the instigator of a war, the aggressor, that pays reparations, not the victim or defender of freedom.

    How much money Germany owes to Greece from their stealing of the Greek gold?

    http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,2093990,00.html

    Read the article from Time.
     
    #66     Feb 15, 2012
  7. zdreg

    zdreg

    'As far as I know, much of eastern europe actually sided with the allies."
    "Reminds me of another country in Middle East which has been basically built up by German reparation funding, the major ally of US nowadays."

    spew it out your anti-Semitic views. be a man and disclose your biases.
     
    #67     Feb 15, 2012