Have the Greeks Actually DONE Anything to Address Their Deficit?

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

ILW wrote: »

the German people are getting rather fed up.

Not half as fed up as the Greek people, I'd imagine.

ILW

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Not half as fed up as the Greek people, I'd imagine.

Difference is that the Greeks got themselves in it and now expect the Germans to go on funding their excesses.

Graham_Devon

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Yes.

But the austerity destroyed the economy, so the deficit as a % of GDP remains pretty bad. Just like Ireland.

You can't cut your way out of a recession.:cool:

This is so misinformed.

All you want to do is suggest cuts don't work, as you don't want to see them here.

What do you suggest Hamish? They don't cut, and the Euro simply gives them even more money to spend further every few months?

nearlynew

The best thing the greeks can do is tell everyone to f*ck off like iceland did.

IronWolf

No doubt that cuts have some effect on GDP

But you don't have a choice when you have no access to international debt markets because you've got yourself up to your eyes in debt. The only option is cuts or default.

Aberdeenangarse

Naaaaah they've avoided the massive national debt by simply using plates more than once instead of smashing them

tomterm8

ILW wrote: »

They seem to talk about it, but has anything concrete been done?

There is nothing they can do about it.

Basic maths: if you owe more than 100% of your earnings per year, your interest rate to renew your debt is over 100%, and there is no prospect of earning more, you are insolvent.

atush

ILW wrote: »

It was just an example.

It appears they are still retiring many at 50 with the average pension at around 95% of final salary and are doing very little to address the massive tax evasion. Seems to be a lot of talk and very little action and the German people are getting rather fed up.

This is what the rioting was about. They want to keep things as they were and they can't. It was and is unsustainable.

I think we should be asking, given they lied when applying to join the euro, whose job was it to check out their application? They should never have been allowed to join.

ILW

tomterm8 wrote: »

There is nothing they can do about it.

Basic maths: if you owe more than 100% of your earnings per year, your interest rate is over 100%, and there is no prospect of earning more, you are insolvent.

So why are they still paying extremely high levels of pensions and benefits, as well as not collecting taxes due to them? I don't understand

tomterm8

ILW wrote: »

So why are they still paying extremely high levels of pensions and benefits, as well as not collecting taxes due to them? I don't understand

At the moment, the Greek government is being bailed out by its creditors because they don't want to mark the losses.

Because if Greek is insolvent, so are the creditors.

It is a period of make believe, basically, while the European economies other than Greece make their decisions.

You saw the same thing in the US, where banks spent around a year avoiding repossessing debtors homes, because if they did that they would have to put the losses on their balance sheet, and would to all intents be bankrupt.