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*to go.
now that would be a sight for sore eyes. somalia in the midst of europe... of course everything is relative.
and on this note let me point out that we should be eternally thankful to our governments they don't act like Hitler or Stalin for criticizing them!
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On December 16 2014 22:24 Simberto wrote: That is true, but greece is nowhere near the bottom yet. You could always become Somalia. Down is always relative, and you can pretty much always go lower. So your point of comparaison is somalia... Great : the european policies did not pushed greece back to somalia's level. That's a pretty good argument.
Meanwhile, Ireland with a higher deficit in 2009 had growth in 2011 and didn't stop to grow since then...
Some data on Greece (french document) :
![[image loading]](http://www.okeanews.fr/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Aust%C3%A9rit%C3%A9EnGr%C3%A8ce.jpg)
From 2007 to 2013: 44% increase in suicide, poverty rate at 32 %, poverty risk increase of 22% on average and 44% for youth, public debt increase of 36.5 %, loss in wage 38 %, loss in pensions 45 %, total savings - 32 %, productivity -8.8 %, production volume -23.5 %, infant morality + 36.5 %, vaccination rate on children - 20 %, 30 % of firms closed... Seriously, what can you say about that ? You think it's a good picture ? Only a tard like Schlaube can say it's a success.
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No, my arguement was "If you are down there is only one way to go" is nonsense in this situation. There is quite a long way down that greece could still go. So if they are now apparently starting to grow again, that is a result of something positive going on, and not an inevitability due to the fact that they are at the absolute bottom and thus every change is an improvement.
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it is not nonsense... you can't fall much deeper in economic terms in such a short period of time as a first world country, not only that but be forced to go down that road. if I were Greece I would have kept my sovereignty and leave the eurozone - at least temporarily.
understand the business cycle.
and that brings me to my next question, I don't buy for a second that mantra of "if greece falls, the euro falls" bullshit - what does Whitedog think of that? how could 3% of the economic output(pre GFC number) of the whole eurozone kill all of it?
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On December 16 2014 22:58 Doublemint wrote: it is not nonsense... you can't fall much deeper in economic terms in such a short period of time as a first world country, not only that but be forced to go down that road. if I were Greece I would have kept my sovereignty and leave the eurozone - at least temporarily.
understand the business cycle.
and that brings me to my next question, I don't buy for a second that mantra of "if greece falls, the euro falls" bullshit - what does Whitedog think of that? how could 3% of the economic output(pre GFC number) of the whole eurozone kill all of it?
I think if one country is allowed to leave the Eurozone that would harm trust in the Euro so seriously that it would - sooner or later - bring it all down.
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On December 16 2014 23:11 EtherealBlade wrote:Show nested quote +On December 16 2014 22:58 Doublemint wrote: it is not nonsense... you can't fall much deeper in economic terms in such a short period of time as a first world country, not only that but be forced to go down that road. if I were Greece I would have kept my sovereignty and leave the eurozone - at least temporarily.
understand the business cycle.
and that brings me to my next question, I don't buy for a second that mantra of "if greece falls, the euro falls" bullshit - what does Whitedog think of that? how could 3% of the economic output(pre GFC number) of the whole eurozone kill all of it?
I think if one country is allowed to leave the Eurozone that would harm trust in the Euro so seriously that it would - sooner or later - bring it all down.
yeah I read that, and there seems to be a lot of consensus in the media around it. though I really do doubt the merits of the statement. I see a lot of special interest involved as well with this concept.
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Cayman Islands24199 Posts
forcced austerity was punitive.
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the greek government lied when it applied for the Eurozone, the greek government failed to build a proper tax infrastructure
you reap what you sow.
everyone was hit by the global recession a couple years back, but the magnitude by which it affected Greece was by a large part their own making.
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On December 16 2014 23:44 Skilledblob wrote: the greek government lied when it applied for the Eurozone, the greek government failed to build a proper tax infrastructure
you reap what you sow.
everyone was hit by the global recession a couple years back, but the magnitude by which it affected Greece was by a large part their own making.
Pretty sure the average Greek citizen had nothing to do with it.
It's so easy to justify letting Greece burn with a mentality of "oh you reap what you sow" and "they brought it upon themselves" isn't it. I'm guessing the German government never makes mistakes.
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On December 16 2014 23:44 Skilledblob wrote: the greek government lied when it applied for the Eurozone, the greek government failed to build a proper tax infrastructure
you reap what you sow.
everyone was hit by the global recession a couple years back, but the magnitude by which it affected Greece was by a large part their own making. Most EU finance ministers of the EU knew Greece lied about its debt figures back then but the EU still let them join anyway. Nothing is ever one-sided in cases like this. The Euro was a political project more than an economic one; it was a statement.
But yes, there's no denying that none of this would have happened if Greece wasn't corrupt to its very core.
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Austerity works and is necessary and i believe inforcing it can be right.. BUT not in the midst of a friggin crisis.
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On December 17 2014 00:26 Velr wrote: Austerity works and is necessary and i believe inforcing it can be right.. BUT not in the midst of a friggin crisis.
this. every ailment needs its own medicine.
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On December 17 2014 00:22 maartendq wrote:Show nested quote +On December 16 2014 23:44 Skilledblob wrote: the greek government lied when it applied for the Eurozone, the greek government failed to build a proper tax infrastructure
you reap what you sow.
everyone was hit by the global recession a couple years back, but the magnitude by which it affected Greece was by a large part their own making. Most EU finance ministers of the EU knew Greece lied about its debt figures back then but the EU still let them join anyway. Nothing is ever one-sided in cases like this. The Euro was a political project more than an economic one; it was a statement. But yes, there's no denying that none of this would have happened if Greece wasn't corrupt to its very core. You think Germany is less corrupt than Greece ? And Europe ? And France ? The political system is corrupted, and the simple fact that the european imposed a budgetary policy on Greek is a beautiful proof of that. The greeks are merely the victim of the state of politics, and saying "you reap what you sow" is not only a heartless comment but quite a stupid one. The people that lost their jobs, or the ones that lost their kids due to budgetary cuts, had nothing to do with the sad state of Greek politics. Hopefully the Greeks will vote right, change their stance with europe and maybe even leave the euro.
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Everybody in Greece has do to with the state of Greek politics. Citizens in democratic countries are responsible for their leadership. And not every country is equally corrupt, that is simply not true. The amount of tax evasion that is going on in Greece and some of the smaller European economies is ridiculous.
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I agree, Germany and France are way more corrupt than Greece. Look what they did in their history. That the state is weak in Greece (like in southern Italy), for obvious reasons, is another topic entirely. I don't see how a high deficit and a high debt / GDP ratio is a crime against humanity that needs punishment. All in all it's only money. Again the european community prove how beautiful a "community" it is. And do you think austerity can fix the weakness of Greek state ? Everything that has been done just made everything worse.
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I don't know if austerity fixes anything, but if your debt is so high that the country has to apply haircuts every two years and still doesn't get the economy going then I'm not convinced any kind of stimulus is working either. I also don't think leaving the Eurozone is going to help because they'll still have the same corrupt politicians and the same structural problems that they have now. Also I think talking of punishment isn't really fair because everybody agreed on the Maastricht criteria beforehand. Now the specific criteria may be wrong or stupid but it's not like someone just arbitrarily pulled out the whip.
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apparently my question was a bit too much under the radar, so I would like to ask it again. I know your stand on the euro, putting that aside, do you think greece leaving the eurozone would destablilize/destroy trust in the eurozone to such a degree that the euro is doomed?
I still don't buy it, even though only our looney parties in Austria were against the esm and before that the "rescue" for the euro and greece a couple of years ago. if that really is the case, then something is terribly wrong here. economy is not my forte and I would like to know from someone who seems to have a good grasp of the situation.
//edit: regarding the maastricht criteria, look at how much budget discipline germany and others showed during the years of Schröder - and how it was enforced.
btw. those were the GOOD times. before the GFC.
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What if it's doomed ? It's a tool that has a manufacturing defect.
With or without greece it was doomed anyway.
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haha I knew something like that would come :p
is it irreparable? with the current leadership I can see your frustration but technically it is not beyond hope, no?. big measures like eurobonds, less german centric.
or just slow steps towards strengthening the south against the northern countries to have less imbalances. just food for thought please
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