Greece...

A_Medium_Size_Jock

All this even before new proposed cuts are implemented and bailouts continue:

Greek ferry, bus and train services were disrupted and civil servants and doctors stopped work in nationwide walkout on Wednesday, as lawmakers debated austerity measures that lenders want the indebted country to implement.

"We have been fooled. We believed in their promises," said Nikos Moustakas, 71, a retired mechanic who worked for 38 years. "They have lost me as a voter," he said.

http://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-eurozone-greece-strike-idUKKCN18D0I1?il=0

cogito

What seems to have gone unnoticed is that the EU are demanding that all political parties in Greece sign up to any new bailout so they are effectively wanting to bind future governments to it. What happened to the notion that a government can't bind its successors?

Of course, it's the Germans who are leading this. You know, the same Germans who never paid war reparations to the Greeks.

kabayiri

cogito wrote: »

What seems to have gone unnoticed is that the EU are demanding that all political parties in Greece sign up to any new bailout so they are effectively wanting to bind future governments to it. What happened to the notion that a government can't bind its successors?
...

I personally find it worrying that the EU is seemingly happy with creating a two speed Europe.

Having your own currency is not a panacea for all problems, but being able to devalue at least gave the Greeks a sense of controlling their own future.

Now they are being used as some kind of lesson/warning to others by the EU hierarchy at the core.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

buglawton wrote: »

it can be blamed, IMO, squarely on the Euro. Locked-down to a single currency

The Greeks are free to leave the Euro and EU any time they like.

But as the alternative is worse - they don't.

Greece was a basket case economy long before they joined the Euro and I suspect they'll continue to be a basket case economy for the foreseeable future.

cogito

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Greece was a basket case economy long before they joined the Euro and I suspect they'll continue to be a basket case economy for the foreseeable future.

But despite everyone knowing this, they were encouraged to join the euro anyway because politics was much more important than economic realism.

elliotwave

Expect more riots in Athens this summer

mrginge

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

The Greeks are free to leave the Euro and EU any time they like.

But as the alternative is worse - they don't.

Greece was a basket case economy long before they joined the Euro and I suspect they'll continue to be a basket case economy for the foreseeable future.

I do hope that basket case Greece don't suddenly start playing games around the brexit negotiation, especially as they have !!!! all to lose in rattling a few of the big fishes cages.
That would be terrible wouldn't it. If they dropped their internal debt renegotiations onto the brexit table.

I'm sure they won't though, because such games don't happen with the EU and they're all such a happy unified bunch.

cogito

mrginge wrote: »

I do hope that basket case Greece don't suddenly start playing games around the brexit negotiation, especially as they have !!!! all to lose in rattling a few of the big fishes cages.
That would be terrible wouldn't it. If they dropped their internal debt renegotiations onto the brexit table.

I'm sure they won't though, because such games don't happen with the EU and they're all such a happy unified bunch.

No chance. Under QMV which will decide the outcome, Greece has three votes compared to Germany, France, Spain and Italy which have over a hundred.

mystic_trev

IMF and eurozone states fail to bridge divide over Greek debt relief raising prospect of a summer crisis for the single currency if Athens misses repayment

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2017/may/23/no-bailout-funds-for-greece-as-eurozone-finance-chiefs-fail-to-agree-deal

Conrad

Looking at Greek island small villas yesterday, even grotty ones with own pool are asking £5 k a fortnight in August, time you add on taxes etc, that's without flights or anything.

Lots of Greeks seem to be making hay from tourism. Turkey by contrast has a lot of deals thanks to security concerns.