Greece...

antrobus

cepheus wrote: »

German Company is Top Tax Evader in Greece ...

Here's a link that works.:)

http://greece.greekreporter.com/2014/09/29/german-company-is-top-tax-evader-in-greece/

Of course, it's an old story, that court in Athens made it's decision back in September 2014 which was 10 months ago.

Mind you, the really interesting thing about that whole airport project is the sheer scale of the fraud involved. Somehow, an aiport that should have cost about €320 million to build, actually cost about €2.3 billion to build.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1456777/Christopher-Bookers-Notebook.html

Some people think that a sum north of €1 billion was distributed in bribes to sundry politicians and officials including, even some EU officials as well.

http://hellasfrappe.blogspot.co.uk/2013/09/new-scandal-did-half-of-athens-airport.html

Now you know why Greece owes so much money.:)

RUN_RABBIT_RUN

Generali wrote: »

The Greek Parliament has voted through the deal, although once again they missed the deadline for acceptance so technically everything is up for renegotiation.

in a world where the supposedly politic-free imf and ecb are finding themselves strong-armed into action, i doubt that's going to hinder progress towards the endgame

ruggedtoast

Greece should have its debt substantially written down, be shown the door of the euro, and then guaranteed that the EZ will buy a significant amount of drachma denominated bonds forthwith.

In other words, the Greek people should be put back in the position they were in before the French and Germans lied to them about their country's structural fitness to be a part of the Eurozone.

Why this hasn't happened I am baffled.

Meanwhile.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jul/16/merkel-gambling-away-germanys-reputation-over-greece-says-habermas

Well, yes. I am wondering if it needs to be pointed out to Angela Merkel that it is not some ancient obligation of her country to be as mean as possible to its neighbours.

remorseless

wotsthat wrote: »

The Greek parliament have approved austerity measures but these were just a pre-condition for negotiations on another bailout to commence.

So now when will they implement the austerity measures? Or is it again sometime in the future not any day now?

Froggitt

ruggedtoast wrote: »

Greece should have its debt substantially written down, be shown the door of the euro, and then guaranteed that the EZ will buy a significant amount of drachma denominated bonds forthwith.

In other words, the Greek people should be put back in the position they were in before the French and Germans lied to them about their country's structural fitness to be a part of the Eurozone.

Wasn't it the Greek Statistical Agency (the one they're going to reform) that confirmed the country's structural fitness to join the Euro?


And for every debt written own, there is a debt owner taking the hit. Lets ask Slovakia (or is it Slovenia) and Lithuania how much they want to contribute to Greek writedowns.

antrobus

ruggedtoast wrote: »

....Meanwhile.

http://www.theguardian.com/business/2015/jul/16/merkel-gambling-away-germanys-reputation-over-greece-says-habermas

Well, yes. I am wondering if it needs to be pointed out to Angela Merkel that it is not some ancient obligation of her country to be as mean as possible to its neighbours.

Seems very strange to argue that Germany has lost any kind of political capital as a result of Greece. With the exception of France, Italy, and Cyprus, every other country in the EZ was on their side.

ruggedtoast wrote: »

....And for every debt written own, there is a debt owner taking the hit. Lets ask Slovakia (or is it Slovenia) and Lithuania how much they want to contribute to Greek writedowns.

Both. Although Slovenia would take a bigger hit than Slovakia. But no hit for Lithuania because it only joined the euro at the beginning of this year. Thus it did not contribute to bailouts 1 or 2, but presumably will contribute to bailout 3.

dktreesea

michaels wrote: »

Come off it, only the terminally stupid believed you could have a single currency without fiscal union. Politicians (despite appearances to the contrary) are generally quite bright and they brought in monetary union. It doesn't take a genius to figure out what what would happen next.

Funnily enough Varoufakis did understand how much the other European countries had invested in the project and he was right they would have caved and offered a much better deal to prevent Greece from leaving if Greece hadn't done it first.

The problem is fiscal union implies agreement and harmonisation of things like VAT, income tax and social welfare and maybe even the same labour laws across all the countries involved. I don't think all the countries in the Eurozone, even Italy, let alone the likes of Portugal, Ireland and Greece, can afford the kind of social welfare and tax regimes that the Germans and French enjoy.

antrobus

dktreesea wrote: »

The problem is fiscal union implies agreement and harmonisation of things like VAT, income tax and social welfare and maybe even the same labour laws across all the countries involved. I don't think all the countries in the Eurozone, even Italy, let alone the likes of Portugal, Ireland and Greece, can afford the kind of social welfare and tax regimes that the Germans and French enjoy.

One could equally well argue that not all the regions in the UK can afford the kind of social welfare and tax regimes that Londoners enjoy. And yet they do.

That would be the logic of ever closer union.

CLAPTON

antrobus wrote: »

One could equally well argue that not all the regions in the UK can afford the kind of social welfare and tax regimes that Londoners enjoy. And yet they do.

That would be the logic of ever closer union.

interesting to note that we are diverging in the UK

the benefit cap will be lower outside London
and of course Scotland is waiting to introduce more social welfare spending

antrobus

CLAPTON wrote: »

interesting to note that we are diverging in the UK

the benefit cap will be lower outside London
and of course Scotland is waiting to introduce more social welfare spending

Local Housing Allowance would be another example.

I would imagine, that in the context of ever closer union, similar considerations would apply.