Greece fails to form new government, calls new elections

[MugenOne]

Bye bye Euro, hello Drachma. On a serious note, Germany wants Greece to remain in the Eurozone. Germany is funding Greece so Greece can pay off German banks. No one wants to get paid back in Drachma at about 5-10 cents on the Euro.This may be Greece's crisis, but it's Germany's problem.

[ProVobis]

Originally Posted by SamH

When Carter left office the US was paying almost 15%.

That was actually a nice rate of return for savers. Carter-appointed Volcker saved the dollar and fixed the economy. When PV dropped rates later, there were healthy capital gains on home prices and stock prices too. Then when Reagan appointed Greenspan, markets crashed.

[SamH]

Originally Posted by ProVobis

That was actually a nice rate of return for savers. Carter-appointed Volcker saved the dollar and fixed the economy. When PV dropped rates later, there were healthy capital gains on home prices and stock prices too. Then when Reagan appointed Greenspan, markets crashed.

http://hnn.us/articles/895.html


http://www.marketoracle.co.uk/Article9414.html


History does not agree with you. The "Crash" of 1987 is mostly attributed to the fact that the market was over priced - a bubble created under Volker. And even though Greenspan stayed as Chairman of the Federal Reserve the market immediately recovered (gaining back 20% of the loss within the week) and erased all the losses within 6 months.

The crash of 1980 was more significant in that it took more than a year to recover.

[JimG]

We in the U.S. watch the events unfold in Greece and comment from across the ocean. But everything that is happening in Greece is headed for the U.S.

The U.S. Congress makes every effort to avoid dealing with our looming debt crisis, and will continue to do so. If Obama is re-elected, he will also avoid it, and continue to spend and increase the debt to satisfy his various constituencies. Like Louis XIV, his motto might as well be, "Apres moi, le deluge."

Ultimately, cutbacks will be unavoidable. But we have become an entitlement society, and every cutback will result in protests and riots, just as in Greece. In Greece there have been virtual runs on banks. With present technology, that sort of thing is made faster and worse--electronic runs on banks happen more quickly than lines of people waiting to withdraw their money.

And because everybody is going to want to find somebody to blame, it will turn into a class warfare game which has no basis in reality but plays well with the media.

[Ridgerunner]

Originally Posted by MugenOne

Bye bye Euro, hello Drachma. On a serious note, Germany wants Greece to remain in the Eurozone. Germany is funding Greece so Greece can pay off German banks. No one wants to get paid back in Drachma at about 5-10 cents on the Euro.This may be Greece's crisis, but it's Germany's problem.

Pay off German banks? With what? More money borrowed from German banks? Surely the Germans know there is no possibility of Greece being anything other than an economic basket case. Are they just trying to borrow time here?

[Mickey Finn]

Originally Posted by SamH

None of the other "economically challenged" nations appear to be willing to enact common sense measures either. Spain, Italy and Portugal are all on the brink and will fall fast once Greece does its lemming like stroll off the cliff.

This is not what they want from their country. You try to package it as " common sense". But it's generally know by another term.

ATB

[SamH]

Originally Posted by Mickey Finn

This is not what they want from their country. You try to package it as " common sense". But it's generally know by another term.

ATB

Fiscal responsibility?

Fiduciary duty to future generations?

Even Saturday Night Live understands it:


http://consumerist.com/2007/04/snl-s...nt-afford.html


It’s so simple it’s funny.

[Dale_M]

Originally Posted by Ridgerunner

Pay off German banks? With what? More money borrowed from German banks? Surely the Germans know there is no possibility of Greece being anything other than an economic basket case. Are they just trying to borrow time here?

I think Greece was brought into the Euro with everyone fully aware of its financial problems. However, the idea of a united Europe has been strongly appealing in the post-WW II years and even more so after the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1991

According to the Wikipedia article (take it for what it is worth) Greece was initially denied entry into the Euro because it failed to meet the financial criteria, e.g. a budget deficit of less than 3% of their GDP, a debt ratio of less than 60% of GDP, low inflation, and interest rates close to the EU average.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_euro

I recently heard on a public radio program that the books were cooked in order to bring Greece into the Euro a couple years after its introduction. If so, I think that speaks to the strong cultural desire for a united Europe.

Just recently German Chancellor Andrea Merkel made some statements which indicate a desire to support Greece through its troubles.

“I have the will, the determination to keep Greece in the euro zone,” she said in an interview on CNBC on Wednesday, in what appeared to be an attempt to relax an increasingly tense situation.

If Greek officials are looking for “stimulus to be pursued for growth in the euro zone, which we could pursue in the interest of Greece, we’re open for this,” Ms. Merkel said. “Germany is open for this.”

In recent days Ms. Merkel has signaled a growing openness to additional growth measures as long as they do not interfere with the fiscal compact to cut deficits in the euro zone in the long run. “On the one hand we have the pillar of sound fiscal policy, and the second pillar will then be the growth component,” Ms. Merkel said in the CNBC interview.

That support could come in the form of money from existing European Union funds that would be redirected for use by crisis countries, said Fabian Zuleeg, the chief economist with the European Policy Center. That approach had been championed by Mr. Hollande.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/17/wo...tml?ref=europe

[curlycool89]

Originally Posted by Dale_M

I recently heard on a public radio program that the books were cooked in order to bring Greece into the Euro a couple years after its introduction.

I've heard similar stories, that Greece basically lied their way in (whether or not it wasn't just Greece is something I haven't heard before though).