Greece...

antrobus

purch wrote: »

Oh don't be mean.

If we ask nicely the poster might come back and explain all about Fractional Reserve Banking, especially as the poster only found out about it yesterday and thinks nobody else does.

That's what I'm worried about.:)

I'd rather avoid that eventuality if at all possible.:)

Froggitt

Its a bit rich of the Greek people to vote in the guy who wants to default on all the foreign loans to Greece, and they then withdraw their own money from the banks to avoid default or haircut on their own money as with Cyprus.

Generali

purch wrote: »

Oh don't be mean.

If we ask nicely the poster might come back and explain all about Fractional Reserve Banking, especially as the poster only found out about it yesterday and thinks nobody else does.

With a bit of luck they'll post an hour long You Tube video about how banks create money literally out of thin air and as a result run everything.

You know, I 'ad that Lord Rothschild in the back of my cab once. Lovely fella, for a shape shifting lizard anyway.

Graham_Devon

Jean-Claude Junker has had a press conference. Seems to be playing the victim and claiming that the Greek government is lying to it's people. He claims the greek government are playing egotistical and populist games.

He suggests that the latest bailout had no wage cuts and no pension cuts. He claims that it's the European Commission who are pushing for social fairness for the Greeks, but the Greek government walked out.

However, Brussels commentators suggest he is being less than honest. The "deal" included such cuts. So what deal is he talking of? Either way, they are lying about the deal, or were lying to the press last week about what the deal contained.

He's suggested that the Greeks are "playing one democracy off against 18 others". Not sure how he can claim this as no other country has a say in all of this.

Edit: Apparently now there is a petition to get Junker on the oscars list for his act and performance

Graham_Devon

And interestingly, the Greek banks are allowing tourists to withdraw as much cash as they like. It's just the people of Greece who are limited.

The knock on effect of this is that the wealthy greeks with offshore funds have free access to their money with no caps.

Graham_Devon

And even more - it's all happening quick!

New deal is on the table (it appears). Extended timeframe offered to look at the deal. Not confirmed by the ECB, the EC of the IMF yet, but all stacks up when you look at the comments made by Merkel, Junker and the IMF in the last hour. Junker has specifically stated a Grexit is still not an option in the last hour.

Looks like a big climbdown by the EU. It will be offered before the referendum in order to get a yes vote. Anything will be done in order to save the Euro, stated (in various forms) by both Merkel and Junker.

ALL are saying they are willing to listen to the Greek government and that there is time over the coming week, even in the event of a default (which I guess now will be avoided technically somehow).

After all the talk about how a Greek exit wouldn't really be that bad for the EU and it was all contained, there appears to be a massive effort to do anything to stop it actually happening.

mystic_trev

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Jean-Claude Junker has had a press conference.

He seems to have made a complete tit of himself.

his comment of not choosing suicide over death has not gone down well.

Greece has had a 35% rise in suicides in just 2yrs

undetterred

Graham_Devon wrote: »

And interestingly, the Greek banks are allowing tourists to withdraw as much cash as they like. It's just the people of Greece who are limited.

The knock on effect of this is that the wealthy greeks with offshore funds have free access to their money with no caps.

Suppose they can't afford to pi££ tourists off

Graham_Devon

mystic_trev wrote: »

He seems to have made a complete tit of himself.

his comment of not choosing suicide over death has not gone down well.

Yer, seems a lot of people on twitter are still trying to pick their jaws up off their desks.

Quotes of "he's hit a new level of desperation" are all over the place.

The pension cuts that he suggests the Greek government are lying about is in plain black and white: "Pensioner spending to be 1% of GDP in the next year". That was one of the conditions.

OK, so it doesn't say "cut pensions". But what else could it possibly mean? Simply appauling for him to go on the world stage and explicitly state that pension cuts were not included in the deal and claim the Greek government were lying.

Seems David Cameron has been quick to respond, stating that if we, the Brits see all this going on, were more likely to exit Europe. Seems to be a warning to the Eurocrats (at least that's how I have taken it).

Thrugelmir

Graham_Devon wrote: »

And even more - it's all happening quick!

New deal is on the table (it appears). Extended timeframe offered to look at the deal. Not confirmed by the ECB, the EC of the IMF yet, but all stacks up when you look at the comments made by Merkel, Junker and the IMF in the last hour. Junker has specifically stated a Grexit is still not an option in the last hour.

Looks like a big climbdown by the EU. It will be offered before the referendum in order to get a yes vote. Anything will be done in order to save the Euro, stated (in various forms) by both Merkel and Junker.

ALL are saying they are willing to listen to the Greek government and that there is time over the coming week, even in the event of a default (which I guess now will be avoided technically somehow).

After all the talk about how a Greek exit wouldn't really be that bad for the EU and it was all contained, there appears to be a massive effort to do anything to stop it actually happening.

Like the UK a referendum to whether to stay in the EU seems the fairest option to the people. Vote to stay in and accept reform is necessary. Vote to exit and deal with the consequences.

Rock and a hard place. There's no easy answers for the man on the street. Pain is envitable.