Greece...

purch

vivatifosi wrote: »

What I don't understand is why you don't see more young Greeks here looking for work.

Probably shows up another reason why monetary union is not working for Greece.

The ability of people to migrate for employment is one of the important levers that will make a common currency workable.

If there is a reluctance or refusal for workers to do this, it will have a significant negative effect on that countries economy.

It would be interesting to see if/how much Greece is effected by a lack of their unemployed seeking work in other EU states.

P.S. I have been surprised by the amounts of migration within the EU, especially since the EUR came into being. I expected lack of labour mobility to be a drag on the EUR, but to a reasonable extent that hasn't been the case.

Generali

vivatifosi wrote: »

What I don't understand is why you don't see more young Greeks here looking for work. Working in a public library you meet immigrants on a daily basis... they use free WiFi or computer time to stay in touch with people at home and borrow language courses to improve their English.

I meet loads of eastern Europeans, as well as a fair number of Spanish, Portuguese, French and Italians. No Greeks yet. I wonder where they go in search for work. Genuinely interested if anyone knows the answer. With an economy that desperate a diaspora must be heading off somewhere.

Looking at the Greek community in Aus I would say that it would take a lot more than mass unemployment and a little light starvation for a young Greek man to leave mum and Nonna to earn a living on the next island along let along go to the UK.

antrobus

vivatifosi wrote: »

What I don't understand is why you don't see more young Greeks here looking for work. ....With an economy that desperate a diaspora must be heading off somewhere.

The Greeks appear to head off to Germany.

Look I found some stats!:)
http://ia601604.us.archive.org/31/items/NumberOfGreekCitizensInEuropeanUnion/GreekCitizen.pdf

purch

I don't care about the Greeks.

I need a Geek to fix my printer :mad:

vivatifosi

antrobus wrote: »

The Greeks appear to head off to Germany.

Look I found some stats!:)
http://ia601604.us.archive.org/31/items/NumberOfGreekCitizensInEuropeanUnion/GreekCitizen.pdf

Interesting, thanks. Although the stats only go up to 2011, I find it surprising that the numbers living in Germany have been steadily trending downwards and that there has been no upturn since the GFC. OK, so the population of Greece was also falling, but you'd expect to see an upswing somewhere.

Froggitt

Cyberman60 wrote: »

It's not just the EU politicians to blame but also Greek politicians, for a failed political experiment, which they were warned about, and sadly it's always the people that pay the price.

Not only that, but they cooked the books in order to make it look like they qualified for the Euro, and they did nothing about the shockingly high tax avoidance rates that was needed in order to stop the country ending up in the !!!! they're in now.


However on the tax avoidance, it takes two to tango/not pay or collect the tax.

antrobus

I know we've been here before, but, hey ho ....

Froggitt wrote: »

Not only that, but they cooked the books in order to make it look like they qualified for the Euro,...

It's not the cooking of the books to qualify for the Euro that matters, so much as cooking of the books that later took place.

Froggitt wrote: »

... and they did nothing about the shockingly high tax avoidance rates that was needed in order to stop the country ending up in the !!!! they're in now.....

Other countries in Europe have even more shockingly high tax [STRIKE]avoidance[/STRIKE] evasion rates and haven't ended up in the !!!!. (Or at least, not the same !!!! as the Greeks.)

Graham_Devon

Here we go again...

Greece's creditors have warned the country its reform plans are insufficient to release the vital source of funds it needs to stay solvent until the summer.

Ahead of a meeting of Europe's finance ministers today, president of the Eurogroup Jeroen Dijsselbloem said a six-point plan submitted by Athens on Friday was "far from complete".

Mr Dijsselbloem said the plans "absolutely won't be accepted as the 30pc that they wanted to replace," referring to the new government's wish to replace austerity measures agreed by the previous regime.

"The Greeks know that too, by the way, they don't have any pretence that this is it," added Mr Dijsselbloem who was speaking in Amsterdam on Sunday.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11458393/Eurozone-prepares-to-judge-Greek-reform-deal.html

Generali

Interesting times.

Of course if the Germans bankrupt Greece then they won't get their money. They might get a pretty unpleasant surprise at the beach this summer too.

Froggitt

They wont get their money anyway. Greece needs to man up and leave the Euro in an orderly manner, default on their loans, and start again. The Euro was never the right currency for Greece......while there is no political union and fiscal union, the weaker states will forever be at the mercy of German economic policy, and will similarly exit the Euro at some point in time.