I know a lot of people share that view but I think most Europeans can't imagine the concept of Europe without Greece. Basically, the euro is getting pretty pear-shaped, yet the common currency is such an important part of the political union. Lord knows where this is all headed.
Exclusion of the Greeks might restore a lot of faith in the euro but it would severely undermine the political union. What with Spain and Italy also suffering from excessive debt, they would be the next ones forced to leave which is completely untenable, according to all the heads of state.. errr. This is what you might call an intractable problem.
As for Germany, I have no doubt the German economy would still have been strong without the euro but it certainly would not be as strong as it is now. The inclusion of weaker members of the EMU kept the euro undervalued from a German perspective. This has been a huge boost to German exports so by rights, they should be willing now to shore up the weaker economies that suffered from an overvalued currency (from their perspective).
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Might be more logical for Germany to leave the euro.
I know a lot of people share that view but I think most Europeans can't imagine the concept of Europe without Greece. Basically, the euro is getting pretty pear-shaped, yet the common currency is such an important part of the political union. Lord knows where this is all headed.
Exclusion of the Greeks might restore a lot of faith in the euro but it would severely undermine the political union. What with Spain and Italy also suffering from excessive debt, they would be the next ones forced to leave which is completely untenable, according to all the heads of state.. errr. This is what you might call an intractable problem.
As for Germany, I have no doubt the German economy would still have been strong without the euro but it certainly would not be as strong as it is now. The inclusion of weaker members of the EMU kept the euro undervalued from a German perspective. This has been a huge boost to German exports so by rights, they should be willing now to shore up the weaker economies that suffered from an overvalued currency (from their perspective).
The only thing being on the Euro keeps Greece from doing is inflating its currency. Its problems (and their eventual solutions, once they've run thru the usual remedy of printing and spending more money in the hope that their debt will devalue faster than the money they pay it off with) will be the same. There will be no painless solution.
There are plenty of snake oil salesmen who will sell them painless solutions, but they won't work any better now than they ever have. Eventually Greece will either restrain public spending or that spending will ruin the country.
A requirement for fiscal discipline favors the disciplined. I hope the European experiment succeeds, but it was never a cure-all or replacement for living within a country's means.
Yep. There are major structural distortions in the eurozone. Basically the single currency prices German and northern European goods down and increases the prices of goods from Southern Europe which would normally have had much weaker currencies. OK, so they can benefit from relatively cheap imports but that is not exactly a healthy thing for local production. It probably is best for Greece to leave the euro zone but it also means they are going to become a third world country almost overnight.
I don't do the "fixed your typo" thing, but I'd have phrased it differently: ...it also means they are going to admit they have been a third world country that has been creating the illusion of prosperity thru disastrous economic policy, and this will finally become impossible to deny almost overnight.
I know a lot of people share that view but I think most Europeans can't imagine the concept of Europe without Greece. Basically, the euro is getting pretty pear-shaped, yet the common currency is such an important part of the political union. Lord knows where this is all headed.
Exclusion of the Greeks might restore a lot of faith in the euro but it would severely undermine the political union. What with Spain and Italy also suffering from excessive debt, they would be the next ones forced to leave which is completely untenable, according to all the heads of state.. errr. This is what you might call an intractable problem.
As for Germany, I have no doubt the German economy would still have been strong without the euro but it certainly would not be as strong as it is now. The inclusion of weaker members of the EMU kept the euro undervalued from a German perspective. This has been a huge boost to German exports so by rights, they should be willing now to shore up the weaker economies that suffered from an overvalued currency (from their perspective).
Yep. There are major structural distortions in the eurozone. Basically the single currency prices German and northern European goods down and increases the prices of goods from Southern Europe which would normally have had much weaker currencies. OK, so they can benefit from relatively cheap imports but that is not exactly a healthy thing for local production. It probably is best for Greece to leave the euro zone but it also means they are going to become a third world country almost overnight.
I don't do the "fixed your typo" thing, but I'd have phrased it differently: ...it also means they are going to admit they have been a third world country that has been creating the illusion of prosperity thru disastrous economic policy, and this will finally become impossible to deny almost overnight.
That is a correct assessment, but quite frankly I don't have faith that either Obama or Mitt is going to turn us around.......oh you mean Greece!
Yep. There are major structural distortions in the eurozone. Basically the single currency prices German and northern European goods down and increases the prices of goods from Southern Europe which would normally have had much weaker currencies. OK, so they can benefit from relatively cheap imports but that is not exactly a healthy thing for local production. It probably is best for Greece to leave the euro zone but it also means they are going to become a third world country almost overnight.
I don't do the "fixed your typo" thing, but I'd have phrased it differently: ...it also means they are going to admit they have been a third world country that has been creating the illusion of prosperity thru disastrous economic policy, and this will finally become impossible to deny almost overnight.
Yep. There are major structural distortions in the eurozone. Basically the single currency prices German and northern European goods down and increases the prices of goods from Southern Europe which would normally have had much weaker currencies. OK, so they can benefit from relatively cheap imports but that is not exactly a healthy thing for local production. It probably is best for Greece to leave the euro zone but it also means they are going to become a third world country almost overnight.
"After the immigrants, you're next." That's what was written on flyers that appeared this week in the gay clubbing district of Athens. As violence against immigrants and ethnic minorities escalates across Greece, supporters of the ultra-right Golden Dawn party have also begun to promote hate attacks on homosexuals and people with disabilities. These fascists march with black shirts and flares through Athens, terrorising ethnic and sexual minorities, waving an insignia which looks like nothing but an unravelled swastika, and declaring disdain for the political process. And yet, across Europe, they continue to be treated as a mere symptom of Greece's economic crisis.
Once, right-wing thugs only came out to attack immigrants at night. Now they do so in daylight, unafraid of the consequences because there rarely are any. In recent weeks, the number and severity of the attacks have increased – on 12 August, a 19-year-old Iraqi asylum seeker was fatally stabbed by a gang on motorcycles just streets away from the Greek parliament – and if migrants report attacks to police, they risk being arrested.
Not only are crimes against immigrants in Greece considered low priority, much of Golden Dawn's support base comes from police ranks. Exit polls in the May 2012 elections suggested that in some urban districts up to 50 per cent of Greek police voted for the racist group, which now holds 7 per cent of the seats in parliament. (...)
