4 ms·

Yeah, it's not so much a left-wing government as it is an anti-EU governments. I can completely understand why and how it came to be, given the hard measures th

Yeah, it's not so much a left-wing government as it is an anti-EU governments. I can completely understand why and how it came to be, given the hard measures that were expected of Greece, but boy it is not going to be pretty to watch this unfold. It is essentially a nightmare scenario, since Greece is doing what the rest of the EU was trying to avoid by borrowing money to Greece, which is having Greece having to default. So now we both get Greece to default and lose a lot of money on top of that. I wonder what the long-term effects will be for Greece.

lazyjones 12y ago
> Yeah, it's not so much a left-wing government as it is an anti-EU government Syriza is pro-EU, but the EU officials and the Troika have been acting anti-EU towards Greece for years. If the EU had acted earlier instead of watching for years as Greece paid up to 38% or so in interests (to french and german banks, so it was very profitable to "watch"), this would never have escalated.
trhway 12y ago
>It is essentially a nightmare scenario, since Greece is doing what the rest of the EU was trying to avoid by borrowing money to Greece, which is having Greece having to default. So now we both get Greece to default and lose a lot of money on top of that. logical end to a typical "payday loan trap". The only difference is that borrower is a sovereign state with its own army, so some typical ways of debt collecting just can't be applied here.
- jules 12y ago
  This isn't a payday loan trap. Greece has a structural government AND trade deficit, not a payday liquidity problem. Even if the loans were forgiven today, they would have to loan again tomorrow.
  - ptaipale 12y ago
    Actually, Greece eliminated that deficit so that it had primary surplus on 4Q2013 and 1Q2014. Then an election campaign started. http://sdw.ecb.europa.eu/quickview.do?SERIES_KEY=121.GST.Q.GR.N.D1300.PDF.D0000.CU.E http://sdw.ecb.europa.eu/quickview.do?SERIES_KEY=121.GST.Q.G... The surplus was apparently achieved with some helpful interpretation by the "troika", in order to support Greece: http://blogs.wsj.com/brussels/2014/04/23/greek-primary-surplus-statistics-troika-edition/ http://blogs.wsj.com/brussels/2014/04/23/greek-primary-surpl...
- deleted 12y ago
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lazyjones 12y ago

> Yeah, it's not so much a left-wing government as it is an anti-EU government Syriza is pro-EU, but the EU officials and the Troika have been acting anti-EU towards Greece for years. If the EU had acted earlier instead of watching for years as Greece paid up to 38% or so in interests (to french and german banks, so it was very profitable to "watch"), this would never have escalated.

trhway 12y ago

>It is essentially a nightmare scenario, since Greece is doing what the rest of the EU was trying to avoid by borrowing money to Greece, which is having Greece having to default. So now we both get Greece to default and lose a lot of money on top of that. logical end to a typical "payday loan trap". The only difference is that borrower is a sovereign state with its own army, so some typical ways of debt collecting just can't be applied here.

jules 12y ago
This isn't a payday loan trap. Greece has a structural government AND trade deficit, not a payday liquidity problem. Even if the loans were forgiven today, they would have to loan again tomorrow.
- ptaipale 12y ago
  Actually, Greece eliminated that deficit so that it had primary surplus on 4Q2013 and 1Q2014. Then an election campaign started. http://sdw.ecb.europa.eu/quickview.do?SERIES_KEY=121.GST.Q.GR.N.D1300.PDF.D0000.CU.E http://sdw.ecb.europa.eu/quickview.do?SERIES_KEY=121.GST.Q.G... The surplus was apparently achieved with some helpful interpretation by the "troika", in order to support Greece: http://blogs.wsj.com/brussels/2014/04/23/greek-primary-surplus-statistics-troika-edition/ http://blogs.wsj.com/brussels/2014/04/23/greek-primary-surpl...
deleted 12y ago
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