Greece is the word

[Redmurty]

what are they going to do ?

cheers Spud

[dibbs]

Probably take the extra 5 billion on offer from the European bank and spend that as well with no intention of paying it back!!!! someone once told me that if you owe the bank 10,000 that's your problem but if you owe them 100,000 that's their problem, coz there's no way your going to pay back that much..and several Billion Euros is a lot of money agreed....so the Euro bank has one big problem there :woohoo:

Oh and I also like the front of the Greek PM who said he still had a few reservations over the conditions set out regarding the repayment of the monies FFS!!!! I bet he's good at poker lol...

[PaulinBont]

They have said no to austerity measures so no doubt the EU (us incl) will lend them more money as losing them from the Eurozone is too big a risk in terms the break-up of the Eurozone; good news for the other non-payers, I'm sure we will bail them out as well , we can afford it. :whistle:

[moto al]

I feel sorry for the ordinary Greek. The imf are behaving like a payday loan company wonga .they give all the money you want when skint, then stick up your bottom with interest rates.

[Redmurty]

can't keep giving them money if they are not going to change their ways surely ?

yes if you owe the banks enough you own them just as long as you keep paying the interest off, countries have been run like this for years ask Blair :pinch: if you owe them enough but do manage to keep paying the interest they will bend over backwards to keep you paying rather than loose the actual loan amount.

cheers Spud

[Redmurty]

I feel sorry for the ordinary Greek. The imf are behaving like a payday loan company wonga .they give all the money you want when skint, then stick up your bottom with interest rates.

but the greek people have had the money and not done anything about paying back, if it was my money I would want it back. They should never of been let in in the first place

cheers Spud

[Philiptigerrice]

Its massively confusing isn't it?

On the one hand - as a Greek reporter put it recently - a nation who didn't really try too hard to pay their taxes - and have retired early for generations, and have a laizzes-fair attitude to bureaucracy and organisation and so on - to the point, where, as he desciribed - people don't even stop for red lights- bills get paid 'whenever' cheeky little bribes are common place - and all shrugged off as "Its the Greek Way".

But they borrowed heavily, because they could just about meet the repayments - and then the economic collapse has ruined them. Its the same as a lot of countrys really, Ireland, Spain and Portugal weren't a million miles off, but were better organised and culturally better placed to pick it up a notch and try to recover.


Its crap for them - but it happened.


Whats really interesting now is the fact that Greeces debt is around $280Bn.

British banks were bailed out to the tune of more than £500Bn.


The difference is that the banks will eventually claw some of it back - and if they don't - so what - we won't have collapsed as Greece have done.


Its just that nobody gives a shit enough about Greece to pay it off for them - but more importantly, if you let a country go bankrupt and start again afresh, without 'punishment' then how many of the smaller tinpot nations will just say "cheers easy - bailout please!"

What, I think, is pissing the Germans off - is the idea that the Greeks appear to them, to not want to pay it back - they don't want to retire later, they don't want to pay 20-40% income taxes and so on.

They appear to the Germans and the French, to want to pay it back at £1 a week.

But, the perceived risk to the Eurozone is massive - so as PaulinBont says - the rest of Europe will keep muddling along, putting a few quid in their coffers, until the Greek people have utterly had enough and f*ck it all off -and go back to the Drachma.

At which point, they'll have blown it anyway.


And, there is of course the risk that the French and Germans will realise that lniking your finances and economy to a lot of smaller tinpot nations might avoid World War Three - but it doesn't really give you stability.


Can you imagine American and Canada forming a New Dollar, and sharing it with Guatemala, Brazil and Mexico, et all? :woohoo: No Chance! Lol - because - its a fucking stupid idea! :whistle:

[picos mestizo]

Yes they need to sort out their fiscal shortcomings but this will not solve their EU financial membership problems long term.
Selling Sun, Olives, Retsina & Ouzo will not repay the money they owe on BMW's & Merc's.

Perhaps foolhardy lending should take some of the blame for the situation. They're a 2CV not a 500AMG society.

[Dutchgit]

The prime minister don't gives a shit anyway. I heard he's good for 280 million Euro.
So set up your people against Europe, resign and fuck off to the US where allegedly most of his money is.

[Bernard Smith]

what are they going to do ?

cheers Spud

1. Reinstate the Drachma.

2. Print money.

3. Exit the single currency.

4. Eventually regain economic control.

5. Reapply in the future to be like England (if we are still in it) - neither in nor out.