Hang on a minute - didn't I say pretty much the same thing about fifty posts ago? I suspect that Chirpy shares more of my views than he might find it palatable to admit )
Hardly surprising. I talk so much shit most of the time that even I find it difficult to re-read my posts sometimes. Still - f*** it, I can always just listen to some Slayer. Much like I'm doing right now, in fact.
If the Greeks vote no, they will then default - bad for them and the Euro will be destabilised which will bring down other weak economies. Also French banks will be badly exposed this and the resulting contagion -which you may say is no big deal for us- but British banks are badly exposed to the French banks and they would be in big trouble which will probably send us into recession - if we are not heading there already -so a total car crash is on its way and it affects us big time.
The reason why the Greeks may vote yes in the referendum though is that the consequences are worse for them if they vote no - that is probably why the Greek prime minister called it - he is getting stick for the austerity messure from his people but they don't have too much choice.
Not entirely accurate. There are actually 27 EU Member States.
Good luck trying to get 27 different sets of egotistical politicians to agree on something.
17 member states of the €urozone. I was talking about the €urozone (countries that have adopted the €uro as their currency) not to be confused with the European Union (EU).
Whoops, now the Greek PM has lost his majority, so there may have to be an election?
Apparently not a euro more for the Greeks until they accept the conditions laid down last week.
If they opt out of the Euro, the French are in the 'crapper' , because of the money they have tied up in there, and our banks are apparently 'underwritting' the French?
Still, I am sure the bankers will still get there bonuses?..... otherwise it would be serious
I bought 2 500g packs of feta cheese in Asda yesterday and got 1 Rhodes free.
More to the point, are the old Drachmas I've got in my sock drawer worth anything now?
At this rate Addicted, the Greek finance manager may need them as 'security' for a further loan, seems as though it could be down to you, and your sock draw?.
I will refrain from jokes about 'old greeks rummaging through your draws'......
Why are countries with no incoming benefits allowed to join the EU ? Romania ---did we have a net shortage of street beggers then? or Bulgaria ? etc etc etc the one thing they all have is a supply of CHEAP LABOUR. Even the Labour scum admit their policy of mass imigration drove down wages and presurised schools and hospitals (strange they admitthat now after lieing about it for 13 years).
Im old enough to remember some of the total BS spouted about us joining the EU ---------goods would be cheaper !!!!!! except we in the UK pay 20% more on white goods than the rest ---why ? It would be a level playing field------------ except it isnt ,EDF are 75% state owned and they can NOT increase prices more than 9% in FRANCE , howveer 20% etc is well just fine and dandy for the UK.. We are the second highest net contributer to the EU yet Blair /Brown and The boy David say we cant even have a vote. If they are worried about the Greeks leaving the EU what would they do about the UK leaving ? OK we all know there isnt anywhere for us to go but all this bullshit about "its better to be in than out" - is just that bull shit.
Whoops, now the Greek PM has lost his majority, so there may have to be an election?
Apparently not a euro more for the Greeks until they accept the conditions laid down last week.
If they opt out of the Euro, the French are in the 'crapper' , because of the money they have tied up in there, and our banks are apparently 'underwritting' the French?
Still, I am sure the bankers will still get there bonuses?..... otherwise it would be serious
That is really beggining to pee me off now. As far as i know not one banker has been called to account for the criminal negligence, lack of corporate governance and wholesale fraud that has got us to this point. Yet they still feel entitled to a bonus...
I guess that as we are in totally uncharted territory, no-one really has any real idea of what may or may not happen. The euro system as we have known it is already dead, quite what will happen now I have no idea. Ordinary Greek people are furious with the Germans because of Merkel lecturing Greece on debt yet Germany has never paid back the 'Hitler' money it owes. The overall and pervasive stench of things not being fair or just hangs over the world. Dangerous times.
Whoops, now the Greek PM has lost his majority, so there may have to be an election?
Apparently not a euro more for the Greeks until they accept the conditions laid down last week.
If they opt out of the Euro, the French are in the 'crapper' , because of the money they have tied up in there, and our banks are apparently 'underwritting' the French?
Still, I am sure the bankers will still get there bonuses?..... otherwise it would be serious
That is really beggining to pee me off now. As far as i know not one banker has been called to account for the criminal negligence, lack of corporate governance and wholesale fraud that has got us to this point. Yet they still feel entitled to a bonus...
Now look. Several bankers were forced to miss an important lunch at The Ivy in order to appear at the House of Commons and tell us how sorry they were about pissing all our money up the wall. Isn't that enough for you? What more do you want?
Yeah, sorry you're right. Sorry about that i come over all marxist when thinking about bankers & to be fair they'll probably have to wait until next year now to upgrade the Aston so they are right in it with the rest of us i suppose.
There is no way for Papandreou to come out of this smelling of anything other than shit. If it was me, I'd have quit ages ago and made it someone else's problem.
Forgive me if this has been covered already - haven't had time to read whole thread.
This may be totally daft and I'm sure there is a good reason why it hasn't been done. As most of the world is in debt, what would happen if it were agreed that every country's debt would be written off? We could all start again and live within our means. If we didn't have to service those debts money could be spent on new infrastructure and rebuilding our economies.
ME14. It would be the worst financial disaster in history. Pension funds would be wiped out and the public sector in most countries would grind to a halt as no one woudl lend to any sovereign country again. A large number of banks would go under.
Good point about bankers not being called into account - did you know that the Government/we currently own £850 billion in banking assets from the bailout -this is actually more than our national debt (the country also spent £1.3 Trillion pounds on the economic bail out btw). Approximately £70 billion pounds is lost through tax avoidance - through loopholes - of big companies and wealthy individuals. The reason Greece would be a disaster is the markets - these are institutions that create nothing - they don't make things- they don't build things, they bet on things and try to make money for themselves.
Some good can come out of all of this if people start to question the current status quo - In the 70s a CEO may have earned 30 times the average salary for his company - now it is nearer 400 times and constantly growing - no matter how successful they are or are not. We always believed that if the people at the top did well, more would be spread around to everybody else. We need capitalism, incentive and wealth creation but it has to be regulated and not the free for all for some to line their pockets at other's expense that it is now. What we need is global changes and that is why - if you look beyond the anti capitalist protests -they can be exciting and a fantastic opportunity ifthey extend beyond anarchists, communists and hippies, which I think they might.
Forgive me if this has been covered already - haven't had time to read whole thread.
This may be totally daft and I'm sure there is a good reason why it hasn't been done. As most of the world is in debt, what would happen if it were agreed that every country's debt would be written off? We could all start again and live within our means. If we didn't have to service those debts money could be spent on new infrastructure and rebuilding our economies.
On the plus side, it would reduce the world's ever increasing population, due to the high suicide rate :-)
Can I just say once and for all that 99% of people who work in Banks do NOT get big bonuses and in most cases do not get a bonus at all. Please stop tarring us all with the same brush.
Does it not occur to anyone that the reason we are in this mess is because the population of the world as a whole, and certain countries/regions in particular, kept spending money they didn't have? How is that the fault of the banks?
Greece have basically spent more money than they made and they borrowed it from banks. If the banks and, subsequently the governments of Europe, had refused to lend them money in the past the future we are trying to avoid would have happened already. Basically Greece are running up credit card debts to pay the credit card minimum balances, and every time they can't pay those minimum balances they simply increase the limits and borrow more. There is, almost certainly, no happy ending here. In the end the 'credit card companies' will have to right off some (or all) of the debt as Greece are just not able to pay it back. How can the current situation be the fault of the banks?
The banks didn't force people to take huge mortgages to buy property, nor did they force people to run up credit card debts on wide screen TVs, the latest mobile phone, holidays and new cars. If we are going to demand that countries keep within their budgets then we will, as individuals, have to stop borrowing to satisfy the latest consumer fashions.
I think it isn't about tarring the innocent but the guity within the major institutions. Banks are essential to any economy and most of the workers in them have absolutely no blame. Try to watch the American documentary - Inside Job - The cerdit crunch from an american perspective but one of the best ways to understand what is rotten. Should be vailable on DVD - was out in cinemas last Christmas time I think.
Comments
Ps there's a good foreign exchange merchant on here if you want to change your thousands of euros back.
The reason why the Greeks may vote yes in the referendum though is that the consequences are worse for them if they vote no - that is probably why the Greek prime minister called it - he is getting stick for the austerity messure from his people but they don't have too much choice.
the referendum may be withdrawn as well.
Should never have raised them, everyone knows that.
Should have cut a least 3 months ago, everyone knows that but they wanted to let J-C Trichet retire without making him look foolish.
off that, he's staying put
Good point about bankers not being called into account - did you know that the Government/we currently own £850 billion in banking assets from the bailout -this is actually more than our national debt (the country also spent £1.3 Trillion pounds on the economic bail out btw). Approximately £70 billion pounds is lost through tax avoidance - through loopholes - of big companies and wealthy individuals. The reason Greece would be a disaster is the markets - these are institutions that create nothing - they don't make things- they don't build things, they bet on things and try to make money for themselves.
Some good can come out of all of this if people start to question the current status quo - In the 70s a CEO may have earned 30 times the average salary for his company - now it is nearer 400 times and constantly growing - no matter how successful they are or are not. We always believed that if the people at the top did well, more would be spread around to everybody else. We need capitalism, incentive and wealth creation but it has to be regulated and not the free for all for some to line their pockets at other's expense that it is now. What we need is global changes and that is why - if you look beyond the anti capitalist protests -they can be exciting and a fantastic opportunity ifthey extend beyond anarchists, communists and hippies, which I think they might.
On the plus side, it would reduce the world's ever increasing population, due to the high suicide rate :-)