Open Letter from Syriza Leader to German People

purch

Man goes into his Bank, and tell's Bank manager that he intends to default on all his debts. Man then asks Bank manager if he can increase his overdraft limit :eek:

N1AK

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Some are suggesting that the ECB are engineering a bank run which will force problems for the Greek government. Greek banks will need to pull down funding from the Greek Central Bank. The GCB doesn't have the funding. It will therefore be up to the Greek government to step in. The Greek government doesn't have the money.... clearly!!

So the demise, should it happen, will end up being the fault of the Greek government....

Clever.

I'm not sure it would be clever if this was the motive. There's a clear chance it will be seen in this context, and thus lead to the EU being blamed for intentionally bringing down the Greek economy, which isn't in its interest.

I think it really is as simple as the rest of Europe not wanting to throw more money away by lending it to a government/country that clearly has no intention of paying it back.

The issue with saying the EU are engineering a bank run is that it looks at things backwards. The EU has been lending vast amounts of money to stop there being a bank run, it is now stopping. It is not the cause of the bankrun, its intervention stopped it from happening for years.

Graham_Devon

N1AK wrote: »

The issue with saying the EU are engineering a bank run is that it looks at things backwards. The EU has been lending vast amounts of money to stop there being a bank run, it is now stopping. It is not the cause of the bankrun, its intervention stopped it from happening for years.

It's interesting, as someone was blaming the Greeks for the issues this morning, suggesting "they took the loans knowing they would need to be repaid".

However, that misses the obvious point that these loans were granted by people who knew full well they couldn't be repaid....not by Greece themselves anyway.

So lending loads of money to stop bank runs only fixes short term problems. The actual problem itself though has only been exacerbated as you are lending to people precisely because they cannot pay back their existing loans.

We need to look outside of Greece now. Many are suggesting that the EU will do what it takes with Greece to fire a warning at Italy, Spain, France should they too get any ideas. Having to deal with the backlash they may get for playing the sort of games they are playing is presumably better than watching some other countries follow the Greek idea....

N1AK

Graham_Devon wrote: »

However, that misses the obvious point that these loans were granted by people who knew full well they couldn't be repaid....not by Greece themselves anyway.

Perhaps you'd share your in depth analysis of this, or the one you are informed by?

I think Greece was mishandled, however it isn't true to say it couldn't have repaid the debts. Greece was reaching budget surplus, before accounting for debt, around now. It still had considerable scope for cutting spending by addressing some of the misuse and abuse that has been ignored so far. Tax evasion is still pervasive. Greece could have paid off it's debts.

Whether the EU should have done things differently, and whether Greece should be where it is now is an entirely different subject.

fordcapri2000

Generali wrote: »

Now translated into English

http://syriza.net.gr/index.php/en/pressroom/253-open-letter-to-the-german-readers-that-which-you-were-never-told-about-greece

It's an interesting read. I can't imagine it went down too well in Berlin but it is factually accurate IMHO:

Crikey!!

I like and agree with this letter on the whole, the bit about bad debt is spot on and applies to far more countries than Greece.

Thrugelmir

N1AK wrote: »

Perhaps you'd share your in depth analysis of this, or the one you are informed by?

I think Greece was mishandled, however it isn't true to say it couldn't have repaid the debts. Greece was reaching budget surplus, before accounting for debt, around now. It still had considerable scope for cutting spending by addressing some of the misuse and abuse that has been ignored so far. Tax evasion is still pervasive. Greece could have paid off it's debts.

Whether the EU should have done things differently, and whether Greece should be where it is now is an entirely different subject.

So the 26% of the population that are now unemployed. Wonder why they are getting kicked and kicked again. While the likes of Eire, Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg do tax deals with US multinationals. Doesn't appear that the EU is in all this together.

You cannot sweep history under the carpet. Today's disillusioned generation are the potential troublemakers of the future. Everyone is shaped by their personal experiences.