Living in Greece has become incredibly tough right now... :-(

[NJ5]

kowenicki said:

NJ5 said:

kowenicki said:
I feel for the people of Greece...

But it was almost inevitable when you have a government that creates jobs out of nothing... I read somewhere that 40% of the greek working population work for the government... thats insane

The people of greece really should have kicked against this earlier though through their election system

It seems that people were happy to turn a blind eye while the 'smooth' EU subsidies rolled in, but now the 'rough' has come all hell breaks loose.

As I said... this is understandable but it was always going to happen with such a dumb idea as the common fiscal policy of the EU. Thank god we arent in it.

What does the common fiscal policy has to do with this disaster? The deficits Greece has are not that different from that of the US or UK (or other EU countries...).

It's like a bunch of people running towards a precipice, and all of them making fun of the ones that have already fallen...

 

You are very wrong here.

The US and the UK control their own destiny.  Simply put, Greece is part of a single currency and is stuck with a single interest rate that is dictated by the EU... this interest rate and currency value may suit Germany and France right now, but there is no way in hell it suits Greece, Spain and Portugal.

Importantly the deficit is similar yes, but as a proportion of GDP it is VERY different otherwise you would have also seen the UK and other countries downgraded to junk bond status as Greece has been.  

Greek debt is over 100% of GDP, the UK for instance is 56%.   the UK could devalue its currency too which could help.  How could Greece do this?  they cant!  They are puppets in the greater Eu... its failed.. and it will fail again. 

Both Greek and UK deficits are above 10% I believe. Total debt is different, which is why Greece got to the breaking point earlier. But other countries are still running towards the same wall.

As for not being able to print its way out of the problem... that could well be a long term advantage, because it increases the probability that they actually fix their deficit in a real way. Printing money is not a real solution, it's just taking one problem and turning it into another one (look at Zimbawe... you can't print forever).