Greece has defaulted

Mersey_2

Greece has now defaulted on its 1.6 Billion IMF Loan.


Fitch Ratings agency has also downgraded Greece to "junk" status.

Voyager2002

Does this mean that Euro notes have lost all their value?

Mersey_2

No. The Euro has been losing 1% each day lately, but its still a currency.


Although the banks in Greece may run out of them in the coming days.

pendragon_arther

It's great having a spend, spend, spend policy and not paying any tax, but there's no such thing as a free lunch. Now it's come back to haunt the Greeks.

Voyager2002

pendragon_arther wrote: »

It's great having a spend, spend, spend policy and not paying any tax, but there's no such thing as a free lunch. Now it's come back to haunt the Greeks.

Not a fair comment... lots of the debt was for stupid projects that only benefited the lenders and contractors linked to them, while quite a bit of arm-twisting was involved in getting the Greeks to agree to such projects. All very familiar, but when this happened before it was in developing countries (starting with Mexico back in the 1980s...)

Widelats

I am no good with finance or world spending, what will this mean for anyone travelling to Greece in terms of prices of things?

And what will it mean for Europe, the other countries get a bit stronger or weaker?

Mersey_2

Merkel has said there's be no more deals. The last I saw on News 24 was the Greek PM was to address the nation live and recommend a No vote again.


Their finance minister was seen getting on to a motorbike (rumoured to be heading for the Russian Embassy), but I doubt even they'll lend them any cash.


Prices in the markets are falling as Greeks don't have the cash to spend, given the £40 daily limit from ATMs.

Marktheshark

How Ironic that the UK currency survival looks like it will come down to Ed balls of all people.

pendragon_arther

Voyager2002 wrote: »

Not a fair comment... lots of the debt was for stupid projects that only benefited the lenders and contractors linked to them, while quite a bit of arm-twisting was involved in getting the Greeks to agree to such projects. All very familiar, but when this happened before it was in developing countries (starting with Mexico back in the 1980s...)

So train drivers et al retiring at 55 on full pensions and full pensions carrying over to children of the deceased had no contributory factor either?

NiftyDigits

pendragon_arther wrote: »

So train drivers et al retiring at 55 on full pensions and full pensions carrying over to children of the deceased had no contributory factor either?

Not fair to tell only part of the story. Their welfare state is likely poorer than ours in other aspects. They also have large amount of migrants arriving every day, thanks to the meddling of certain nations in the Middle East.

Voyager2002

pendragon_arther wrote: »

So train drivers et al retiring at 55 on full pensions and full pensions carrying over to children of the deceased had no contributory factor either?

Possibly... but remember that wages are very low; unemployment benefit stops after a year (so if you can't find work after that you beg or starve). To decide whether 55 is a reasonable retirement age we would need to know how long people live into old age, while surely it is reasonable that orphans are supported by their parent's pension schemes, something that is certainly the case in the UK.