Greece Watch...

[emordnilap]

Actually, each country's Euro notes are individually identified. The Greeks' have the word "Euro" in Greek script for example.

I'm not certain you're right. All euro notes have the word 'EURO' and then 'EYPΩ' underneath.

[Tarrel]

Oh. OK, I didn't realise that. I'm sure the coins vary though (but maybe that's also a misunderstanding, speaking from outside the Euro zone).

[emordnilap]

Oh. OK, I didn't realise that. I'm sure the coins vary though (but maybe that's also a misunderstanding, speaking from outside the Euro zone).

Yeah, I shoulda said that, sorry. The coins all alike on the obverse but are country-specific on the reverse. You find you have several different countries' coins in your pocket at any one time. Funnily enough I have a Greek fifty cent in my hand at the moment. I might post it back to them.

[Tarrel]

Oh. OK, I didn't realise that. I'm sure the coins vary though (but maybe that's also a misunderstanding, speaking from outside the Euro zone).

Yeah, I shoulda said that, sorry. The coins all alike on the obverse but are country-specific on the reverse. You find you have several different countries' coins in your pocket at any one time. Funnily enough I have a Greek fifty cent in my hand at the moment. I might post it back to them.

Keep it as a collectors' item. Might be worth something someday!

[Aurora]

The Guardian - 13/06/12


Eurozone crisis: Greece faces an agonising election choice

Many Greeks want the euro but reject austerity, though they would be foolish to give New Democracy and Pasok another chance.

Article continues ...

[Aurora]

The Guardian - 13/06/12

Greek crisis: social enterprise is one answer to economic strife

A sustainable project to recycle forest biomass for heating is among new ideas that can turn community interest into profit.

Article continues ...

[Aurora]

The Guardian - 13/06/12

Greece's super-rich maintain lavish lifestyles and low profiles

Since the outbreak of the Greek crisis, the country's moneyed class has been notable mainly by its absence.

Article continues ...

As ordinary Greeks have been thrown into ever greater poverty by wage and pension cuts and a seemingly endless array of new and higher taxes, their wealthy compatriots have been busy either whisking their money out of Greece or snapping up prime real estate abroad.

[Lord Beria3]

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/jun20 ... -j13.shtml

The German government has intensified its threats against Greek voters on the eve of parliamentary elections this weekend.

“There is no easy way”, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble (Christian Democratic Union) told the press earlier this week. Social cuts and public sector layoffs dictated by the EU and Berlin—euphemistically labeled “adaptation measures”—are essential and non-negotiable, Schäuble declared, whatever way the electorate votes.

He was even more explicit in a television interview on Saturday evening. Greece must comply with the terms of the EU “irrespective of who the Greeks vote for”, he said.

Earlier this year Schäuble sharply criticized the decision of the Greek government to hold new elections, and spoke of “elections at the wrong time”. Only after the cuts had been enforced could one talk about elections.

When new elections were then scheduled, Schäuble demanded that all parties underwrite a declaration that they would adhere in full to the prescribed program of cuts after the election. He made the payment of the next tranche of the euro rescue fund dependent on this condition, and blackmailed the parties with the threat of national bankruptcy.

Now, Schäuble says, the Greek people can vote how they like, the electoral result and the composition of a new government will have no effect on policy in Athens. There are only two possibilities: either Greece stays in the EU and in the euro zone, accepting that all important decisions will be taken in Brussels and Berlin; or Greece leaves the euro, resulting in a national bankruptcy with equally disastrous economic and social consequences.

This is the language of dictatorship. In both cases it is not voters who decide, but the markets—that is, the banks, large corporations and the financial aristocracy behind them.

Schäuble’s threat that the Greek people can only choose between a rock and a hard place—poverty dictated by Brussels and Berlin or state bankruptcy—shows how aggressively German imperialism is using the economic crisis to enforce its hegemony in Europe.

A few weeks ago the chairman of the conservative parliamentary group, Volker Kauder, declared that Europe would “once again speak German”. By “again”, he apparently meant the years before 1945, when German soldiers destroyed half of Europe.

Conditions in Greece now make it clear how this history is relevant today. The massive cuts in social services, attacks on democratic rights, and the enormous redistribution of wealth from the bottom to the top have produced a social retrogression unprecedented in Greece since the Nazi occupation

A startling and chilling article from the WSWS on the eurozone crisis.

I have had a bad feeling about the Euro for a while - again, anather war will come. Hopefully it will be a good generation away.

[SleeperService]

Somebody trying to draw too many parallels between the 1930s and 2010s I think.

Some German politicians who have been behind irresponsible lending to the PIIGS are starting to scream to divert attention from what they've been doing. The electorate in Germany aren't fooled vis the recent election results.

They've been rearranging deck chairs on the Titanic now their feet are getting wet

[UndercoverElephant]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18429469

Greeks are withdrawing money from bank accounts ahead of elections amid fears the country may leave the euro, Greek banking officials say.

Here we go, here we go, here we go...

[Aurora]

"Aw Shit!"

[energy-village]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-18429469

Greeks are withdrawing money from bank accounts ahead of elections amid fears the country may leave the euro, Greek banking officials say.

Here we go, here we go, here we go...

Indeed. It's exactly what most of us on here would probably do; at least take some of it out.

[UndercoverElephant]

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/jun20 ... -j13.shtml

The German government has intensified its threats against Greek voters on the eve of parliamentary elections this weekend.

“There is no easy way”, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble (Christian Democratic Union) told the press earlier this week. Social cuts and public sector layoffs dictated by the EU and Berlin—euphemistically labeled “adaptation measures”—are essential and non-negotiable, Schäuble declared, whatever way the electorate votes.

He was even more explicit in a television interview on Saturday evening. Greece must comply with the terms of the EU “irrespective of who the Greeks vote for”, he said.

Earlier this year Schäuble sharply criticized the decision of the Greek government to hold new elections, and spoke of “elections at the wrong time”. Only after the cuts had been enforced could one talk about elections.

When new elections were then scheduled, Schäuble demanded that all parties underwrite a declaration that they would adhere in full to the prescribed program of cuts after the election. He made the payment of the next tranche of the euro rescue fund dependent on this condition, and blackmailed the parties with the threat of national bankruptcy.

Now, Schäuble says, the Greek people can vote how they like, the electoral result and the composition of a new government will have no effect on policy in Athens. There are only two possibilities: either Greece stays in the EU and in the euro zone, accepting that all important decisions will be taken in Brussels and Berlin; or Greece leaves the euro, resulting in a national bankruptcy with equally disastrous economic and social consequences.

This is the language of dictatorship. In both cases it is not voters who decide, but the markets—that is, the banks, large corporations and the financial aristocracy behind them.

Schäuble’s threat that the Greek people can only choose between a rock and a hard place—poverty dictated by Brussels and Berlin or state bankruptcy—shows how aggressively German imperialism is using the economic crisis to enforce its hegemony in Europe.

A few weeks ago the chairman of the conservative parliamentary group, Volker Kauder, declared that Europe would “once again speak German”. By “again”, he apparently meant the years before 1945, when German soldiers destroyed half of Europe.

Conditions in Greece now make it clear how this history is relevant today. The massive cuts in social services, attacks on democratic rights, and the enormous redistribution of wealth from the bottom to the top have produced a social retrogression unprecedented in Greece since the Nazi occupation

A startling and chilling article from the WSWS on the eurozone crisis.

I have had a bad feeling about the Euro for a while - again, anather war will come. Hopefully it will be a good generation away.

ANOTHER



AN F*****G OTHER

[emordnilap]

[Little John]

To be fair to the Germans, I think it is reasonable of them to point out to the Greeks that if they don't accept the EU bailout terms, then they face national bankruptcy, economic isolation and massive poverty. These things are simply the case and any Greek who thinks it is possible to remain in the Euro and, at the same time, get a bailout on their own terms and not on terms that are in the interests of the EU zone as a whole are deluded.

The main thing is the the Greeks should get to decide which they prefer, the rock or the hard place. It should not be dictated to them by anyone.