And so the saga rumbles on. I do wish they'd cut to the chase.
They can't. They know that as soon as a Greek exit becomes a fact rather than a fear, everybody will assume that Spain and other countries are destined to follow, and no amount of "we will not let Spain fail!" propaganda will be believed by anybody. It's a fork in the road. Either the troika cuts Greece off and faces the catastrophic consequences of domino-defaulting PIIGS, or the decision is taken to start printing serious amounts of Euros.
"We fail to mandate economic sanity because our brains are addled by....compassion." (Garrett Hardin)
The most interesting possibility is that there is a collective failure to decide which of the two obvious paths offered by the fork, resulting in the creation of a new path straight through the deep, dark forest! Greece elects an anti-austerity government which refuses to accept the terms of the austerity package, the troika withhold payment, Greece becomes a "cash economy" but technically still part of the eurozone. The result would be a preview of what a fast economic crash would look like in other parts of the developed world, and a radically altered political reality in Europe.
"We fail to mandate economic sanity because our brains are addled by....compassion." (Garrett Hardin)
snow hope wrote:Well what a mess we have now. There seems to be no way out of this other than pretty catastrophic paths. Thanks goodness we never joined the Euro.
If Greece goes down and Spain goes down and Portugal goes down and Italy goes down we go down. The fact we are not members of the Euro will not save our economy from the fallout.
snow hope wrote:Well what a mess we have now. There seems to be no way out of this other than pretty catastrophic paths. Thanks goodness we never joined the Euro.
If Greece goes down and Spain goes down and Portugal goes down and Italy goes down we go down. The fact we are not members of the Euro will not save our economy from the fallout.
+1. If the Euro goes down the tube, the UK will be sure to follow.
We may not be a member but don't forget that the UK has a significant number of investments throughout Europe.
Aurora wrote:Cartoon courtesy of The Guardian - 15/05/12
OK..so we have Christine Lagarde of the IMF dressed up as death, Mario Draghi of the ECB as a wild west vampire...who's the one who looks like Yoda wielding a blunderbuss?
ETA: answer my own question: José Manuel Barroso, President of the European Commission, is the vampire, and Mario Draghi is Yoda...
Last edited by UndercoverElephant on 16 May 2012, 00:19, edited 2 times in total.
"We fail to mandate economic sanity because our brains are addled by....compassion." (Garrett Hardin)
snow hope wrote:Well what a mess we have now. There seems to be no way out of this other than pretty catastrophic paths. Thanks goodness we never joined the Euro.
If Greece goes down and Spain goes down and Portugal goes down and Italy goes down we go down. The fact we are not members of the Euro will not save our economy from the fallout.
+1. If the Euro goes down the tube, the UK will be sure to follow.
We may not be a member but don't forget that the UK has a significant number of investments throughout Europe.
Yes, but we can print money without major political obstacles, and that alone might save us...for a while.
"We fail to mandate economic sanity because our brains are addled by....compassion." (Garrett Hardin)
It was confirmed by the President of Greece, “that the strength of banks is very weak right now.” Multiple reports including the President of Greece has reported that on Monday alone nearly $898 Million or €700 million Euros were withdrawn from Greek banks.
The tipping for for a Greek Bank Run has picked up steam as the news spreads across the world. As soon as the news started spreading to other news publications which started with the Wall Street Journal’s report, “Greek Depositors Withdrew $898 Million From Banks Monday” markets started to fall.
If this withdrawal rate even remains constant (doesn't accelerate) then there will be no bank deposits left in Greece in less than 100 days.
"We fail to mandate economic sanity because our brains are addled by....compassion." (Garrett Hardin)
All Greece has to do is discover shale gas or oil in its territory...
I experience pleasure and pains, and pursue goals in service of them, so I cannot reasonably deny the right of other sentient agents to do the same - Steven Pinker
"In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man, brave, hated, and scorned. When his cause succeeds however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot."
In February, former finance minister Evangelos Venizelos said Greeks had deposited 16bn euros overseas, including "32% in British banks and 10% in Swiss banks".
"In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man, brave, hated, and scorned. When his cause succeeds however, the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot."
And so the saga rumbles on. I do wish they'd cut to the chase.
