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I recommend reading this short article published on The Economist to get a grasp of the consequences of Greece defaulting. For Greece the gains from defaulting

by ucha 11y ago

I recommend reading this short article published on The Economist to get a grasp of the consequences of Greece defaulting. For Greece the gains from defaulting would be slight, and the costs potentially vast. True, the country could walk away from debts of €317 billion, or almost 180% of GDP. But that is worth less to Greeks than it sounds. Although the debt is huge, it is at bargain-basement interest rates and repayable over decades. Interest payments until the early 2020s are just 3% of GDP a year. Even for Greece, that is manageable. Nor would leaving the euro do much good. In theory, with a new drachma and its own central bank, Greece could devalue and gain competitiveness. But Greece’s trade is modest. And it has already lowered nominal wages by 16% without a boom in exports. The costs of Grexit still outweigh the benefits By contrast, the cost of Grexit would be exorbitant: bust banks, slashed savings, broken contracts and shattered confidence (see article). Politics could be devastated. Syriza, Mr Tsipras’s hard-left party, is anti-market and anti-enterprise. Neo-fascist Golden Dawn and the Communists, with a combined 12% of the vote, would thrive. Most of the parties in the middle, already discredited, would struggle. This week Mr Tsipras was due to play footsie with Vladimir Putin in Russia. Ejected from the euro, and possibly the EU, a country with a history of coups would risk becoming violent and even more corrupt. http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21654598-greece-and-euro-zone-are-stuck-abusive-relationship-my-big-fat-greek-divorce http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21654598-greece-and-eu...

toyg 11y ago
Politics are already devastated, for the simple reason that all governments pre-Syriza put the country in this mess to begin with, and then simply couldn't find a way out that didn't involve huge social strife. The EU should help the new government correct the situation, if anything because they were elected with a relatively large mandate to do just that, and they clearly have the brains to do it (they took a smalltime ultraleft party and brought it in government, they can't be stupid). Instead, EU governments are scared of... What exactly?
- jacquesm 11y ago
  > Instead, EU governments are scared of... What exactly? Their own electorate.
  - toyg 11y ago
    Expectations of popular opposition to debt relief for Greece are greatly exaggerated. There is exactly one electorate slightly contrary (the German one) and even then, it's mostly due to tabloids stoking the fires of casual racism, that evergreen topic. Anybody who knows anything about how the Euro integration process happened and how Greek finances ended up in this state, will admit that 0.01% of Europe GDP is a pittance to pay for the benefit to humankind that a stable Euro would deliver.
VLM 11y ago
Europe can financially afford Greece defaulting. Can't afford Spain and other markets. So an example has to be made of the Greek people, before other countries get any bright ideas. Its going to really suck for them. This is a long, old crisis, many years. There is a famous graph I can't find (the world needs a graph search startup?) of the future promises of post-austerity growth vs actual results and the separation is staggering, like 30+ percent difference between promises and reality. Given the trends during the crisis the article seems to miss the point that trying year number eight, or whatever it'll be exactly, of even more austerity absolutely guarantees Golden Dawn taking over, despite that being a claimed result solely of grexit. Obviously continuing with the failed BAU strategies is a total non-starter. It is also possible that trying "anything else", which is finally a political necessity, will somehow make things even worse. The fundamental problem is you can't have a partial union. Everything else, the root cause of the crisis, the attempts to fix it, the politics, all follow from that fundamental problem.
- ZenoArrow 11y ago
  "The fundamental problem is you can't have a partial union." You can have a partial union. That's what EU members who aren't part of the Eurozone have. Greece defaulting will be damaging for its trade prospects, but they don't need to leave the EU to recover.
  - danieldk 11y ago
    I think your parent is referring to a monetary union. As in: you can't have a monetary union without a fiscal union.
  - VLM 11y ago
    Err kind of. I phrased my claim poorly. Something more like if you have a partial union it'll be less stable than the alternative, more human suffering, etc. Look at the origin of the crisis, the union is simultaneously strong enough for international debt to be accumulated, but too weak to control the situation to keep the accumulation to survivable levels and too weak to keep humanitarian services operating regardless of financial market issues. A weaker (no?) union would have never accumulated the debt due to lack of procedure or trust, a stronger union would have regulated the loans and cut off the flow before Greece committed debt suicide years and years ago. Or look at midgame. The weak union had to decide if it should make German banks suffer or the Greek people suffer, the union was strong enough for them to enforce their decision, at least for several years... A weaker union would still have decided for the banks but the Greeks would have told them to pound sand and this would have been water under the bridge years and years ago. A stronger union would have sent in the tanks and troops and taken it out of their hide, pretty rough stuff but it would have all been over years ago and we'd be talking about the recovery that started years ago etc. The weak union doesn't really have any idea what to do. Looking at the endgame, a weak union has the possibility of creating a generational depression instead of getting it over with quickly like either alternative, basically the midgame argument but emphasizing the length of the crisis, like a weak union is optimally designed to maximize human suffering.
J0-onas 11y ago
German scource in which the president of the ifo institute says that the Grexit is the best alternative for all involved parties. I heard him speak at talkshows and while his argumentation is a bit harsh, it made sense when I heard it. Fact is, no one can prove that his stategy is the best alternative. http://www.faz.net/aktuell/wirtschaft/eurokrise/griechenland/hans-werner-sinn-der-grexit-ist-die-rettung-13658526.html http://www.faz.net/aktuell/wirtschaft/eurokrise/griechenland...
- chinathrow 11y ago
  The billion dollar question is, if the Grexit will be followed by Portexit, Spexit and Italexit at some point in the future. My crystal ball says, if that's going to happen, the EU or at least the Euro will be toast.
  - secfirstmd 11y ago
    As an Irish man, it makes me kind of proud that we have pulled ourself out of the mess enough to be rarely mentioned in such lists any more! We have a lot of problems, including a stupid housing market once again, high debts and exposure because of our export dependance - but i would sure rather be in our position than Greece's.
    - joosters 11y ago
      It's really not that clear that Ireland really has pulled itself out of its mess yet...
      - derriz 11y ago
        It pretty much is clear. And it proves Krugman wrong so I guess since that 2 year old article with its disingenuous graph (sneakily shifting the y-axis to make the up tick look insignificant), he'll never mention Ireland again. Irish GDP grew 4.8% last year - one of the highest in the EU. Unemployment is 30/40% less than peak (although still high at 9.5% but it's falling). The government deficit is falling faster than expected. So despite the fact that apparently "austerity doesn't work", it did for Ireland (and it looks like it's starting to work for Spain and maybe even Portugal and Italy). Here are some more up-to-date economic numbers: http://www.rte.ie/news/business/2015/0312/686549-cso-gdp-growth/ http://www.rte.ie/news/business/2015/0312/686549-cso-gdp-gro...
DominikR 11y ago
Funny that the economist mentions the "history of coups" when in fact these military coups and dictatorships were instigated and supported by the US and UK to prevent a communist government. (like they did in Iran back then) What would happen if Greece defaulted on western debt and aligned with Russia and China is certainly not a repeat of the fascist military dictatorship they had back then. They most likely would have social-democratic governments in the next decades, exorbitant financial investment from both Russia and China and lots of Russian military bases on their territory. This would most likely be the end of the EU (and NATO) as we know it, because from there Russia and Turkey would work on pushing the EU out of the Balkans, which would most likely work considering that all of the populations there have a strong preference and historic ties to either Russia or Turkey, depending on what country you look at. Even in Bulgaria, which is currently in the EU and has a pro-EU government, about 80% of the population have pro-Russian sentiments regarding the conflict in the Ukraine. This is why the EU and US will do whatever it takes to keep Greece in the EU, even if it means that they have to orchestrate a military coup in Greece or that they will have to print trillions to cover for the debt.
- tosseraccount 11y ago
  Bulgaria, Greece and Russia share an Orthodox Christian and Slavic heritage.
  - DominikR 11y ago
    Well, Greeks are not Slavic but the Orthodox Slavic populations certainly view Greek culture (or to be more precise - Byzantine, East-Roman or Roman culture or whatever you'd like to call it) as one of the foundations of their own culture. We view each other as brotherly nations and there's not much that can change this, just as the Muslim populations on the Balkans view Turkey as their brotherly nation. The only reason they all signed up for the EU is because of the promise of a better economic future, not because they want to be part of western culture. During the last years it has become apparent that these promises will not materialize and that's why I expect that the EU will massively contract in the next years.
crdoconnor 11y ago
>For Greece the gains from defaulting would be slight, and the costs potentially vast. Translation: FUD. >True, the country could walk away from debts of €317 billion, or almost 180% of GDP. But that is worth less to Greeks than it sounds. Translation: pretty please don't. >Although the debt is huge, it is at bargain-basement interest rates and repayable over decades. Interest payments until the early 2020s are just 3% of GDP a year. Even for Greece, that is manageable. Translation: You may have had to do with massive unemployment and without life saving drugs by kowtowing to creditor demands ( http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/325955 http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/325955 ), but you'll "manage" if you continue doing it. >Nor would leaving the euro do much good. In theory, with a new drachma and its own central bank, Greece could devalue and gain competitiveness. But Greece’s trade is modest. And it has already lowered nominal wages by 16% without a boom in exports. Translation: we believe so fervently in the power of suppressing wages to improve economic performance, that the idea of trying anything else is literally unthinkable. >The costs of Grexit still outweigh the benefits By contrast, the cost of Grexit would be exorbitant: bust banks, slashed savings, broken contracts and shattered confidence (see article). Politics could be devastated. Syriza, Mr Tsipras’s hard-left party, is anti-market and anti-enterprise. Translation : Attention target readers of the Economist - elites, captains of industry, rapacious financiers - Mr Tsipras is your masked villain. >Neo-fascist Golden Dawn and the Communists, with a combined 12% of the vote, would thrive. Translation : please ignore the fact that they already are thriving thanks to the Economist-stamp-of-approval austerity measures.
- randomname2 11y ago
  I agree The Economist isn't exactly unbiased here, thanks for pointing that out.
- evanpw 11y ago
  > Translation: FUD The Greeks have always been perfectly free to stop paying their existing debts, at the cost of not being able to borrow any more money. The only reason they've been negotiating with the Troika and agreeing to the austerity measures you disagree with is that they believed that defaulting would be _even worse_. Even if default is currently the best option, there is plenty of actual uncertainty, and some amount of fear seems justified.
tomp 11y ago
The Economist is quite neo-liberal. > Syriza, Mr Tsipras’s hard-left party, is anti-market and anti-enterprise. Only if by "market" you mean no social security and zero-hour contracts, and by "enterprise" you mean a fire-sale privatisation of state assets.
- joosters 11y ago
  They are definitely being disingenuous by stating this as a fact rather than an opinion. What political party would ever describe itself as anti-enterprise, for instance?
  - tomp 11y ago
    A communist one?
    - joosters 11y ago
      I think you are using a very narrow definition of the word enterprise.
adebtlawyer 11y ago
For longer, drier background reading, recommend "This Time It's Different." One key insight the researchers shared was that outright defaults (complete failure to repay) on sovereign debt are rare. The Soviets did it on the Tsar's debt, but usually what happens is that repayment is delayed. My guess is that Greece will do that rather than switching currencies. The exact terms depend on what their creditors will allow, but their creditors have a lot to lose from failure to reach agreement, too.
argumentum 11y ago
In theory, with a new drachma and its own central bank, Greece could devalue and gain competitiveness. But Greece’s trade is modest Greece is the most enticing tourist destination in the world. It has everything .. history, culture, beaches, food etc. A devalued Drachma would draw an increasing portion of an industry that is poised for dramatic growth as more Indians & Chinese become rich enough to catch the tourist bug. It's world-class shipping industry would also become more competitive against Korea, Scandinavia and Japan. Syriza is not as "far left" as portrayed, and they are not as corrupt as previous Greek governments. Their finance minister, though he has described himself as a "libertarian marxist", has received strong praise from free-market institutions for various proposals. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yanis_Varoufakis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yanis_Varoufakis The big problem for establishment magazines like the Economist has become, is that he dares to think for himself.
- elmar 11y ago
  libertarian marxist https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_Marxism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_Marxism
- derriz 11y ago
  Unfortunately tourist infrastructure determines how much tourism can grow and Greece already has 70-80% hotel bed occupancy so I don't see the scope here to prove a huge economic boost. On the other hand, Greece imports energy, food, medicine and technology and those things will all have to be paid for with hard cash. The result of a 50% devaluation of the new Drachma will be a doubling in prices for basic life necessities. It's clear to me that Syriza's policies have been and will be absolutely disastrous for the ordinary Greek person. Things may have been bad last year but at least there was a small uptick in GDP and employment and seemingly a small improvement in government finances. With a busted bank system, capital controls and no cash to pay for essential imports, I can see Syriza turning Greece into a fully failed state.
  - argumentum 11y ago
    Why couldn't you build more hotel capacity? Anyway, airbnb should accommodate more and more visitors as well. Some of those things, particularly medicine & food, are artificially high priced because you are in the EU: http://www.firstwordpharma.com/node/1065529#axzz3ePfuiLQG http://www.firstwordpharma.com/node/1065529#axzz3ePfuiLQG I grant it will be difficult for a year or two, but I predict you will be better off in the long run.
marcusgarvey 11y ago
And I recommend reading this rather long, 4-part series from Der Spiegel for anyone who wants to know how we got to this point. http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/the-ticking-euro-bomb-how-a-good-idea-became-a-tragedy-a-790138.html http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/the-ticking-euro-...

by ucha 11y ago

toyg 11y ago

Politics are already devastated, for the simple reason that all governments pre-Syriza put the country in this mess to begin with, and then simply couldn't find a way out that didn't involve huge social strife. The EU should help the new government correct the situation, if anything because they were elected with a relatively large mandate to do just that, and they clearly have the brains to do it (they took a smalltime ultraleft party and brought it in government, they can't be stupid). Instead, EU governments are scared of... What exactly?

jacquesm 11y ago
> Instead, EU governments are scared of... What exactly? Their own electorate.
- toyg 11y ago
  Expectations of popular opposition to debt relief for Greece are greatly exaggerated. There is exactly one electorate slightly contrary (the German one) and even then, it's mostly due to tabloids stoking the fires of casual racism, that evergreen topic. Anybody who knows anything about how the Euro integration process happened and how Greek finances ended up in this state, will admit that 0.01% of Europe GDP is a pittance to pay for the benefit to humankind that a stable Euro would deliver.

VLM 11y ago

Europe can financially afford Greece defaulting. Can't afford Spain and other markets. So an example has to be made of the Greek people, before other countries get any bright ideas. Its going to really suck for them. This is a long, old crisis, many years. There is a famous graph I can't find (the world needs a graph search startup?) of the future promises of post-austerity growth vs actual results and the separation is staggering, like 30+ percent difference between promises and reality. Given the trends during the crisis the article seems to miss the point that trying year number eight, or whatever it'll be exactly, of even more austerity absolutely guarantees Golden Dawn taking over, despite that being a claimed result solely of grexit. Obviously continuing with the failed BAU strategies is a total non-starter. It is also possible that trying "anything else", which is finally a political necessity, will somehow make things even worse. The fundamental problem is you can't have a partial union. Everything else, the root cause of the crisis, the attempts to fix it, the politics, all follow from that fundamental problem.

ZenoArrow 11y ago
"The fundamental problem is you can't have a partial union." You can have a partial union. That's what EU members who aren't part of the Eurozone have. Greece defaulting will be damaging for its trade prospects, but they don't need to leave the EU to recover.
- danieldk 11y ago
  I think your parent is referring to a monetary union. As in: you can't have a monetary union without a fiscal union.
- VLM 11y ago
  Err kind of. I phrased my claim poorly. Something more like if you have a partial union it'll be less stable than the alternative, more human suffering, etc. Look at the origin of the crisis, the union is simultaneously strong enough for international debt to be accumulated, but too weak to control the situation to keep the accumulation to survivable levels and too weak to keep humanitarian services operating regardless of financial market issues. A weaker (no?) union would have never accumulated the debt due to lack of procedure or trust, a stronger union would have regulated the loans and cut off the flow before Greece committed debt suicide years and years ago. Or look at midgame. The weak union had to decide if it should make German banks suffer or the Greek people suffer, the union was strong enough for them to enforce their decision, at least for several years... A weaker union would still have decided for the banks but the Greeks would have told them to pound sand and this would have been water under the bridge years and years ago. A stronger union would have sent in the tanks and troops and taken it out of their hide, pretty rough stuff but it would have all been over years ago and we'd be talking about the recovery that started years ago etc. The weak union doesn't really have any idea what to do. Looking at the endgame, a weak union has the possibility of creating a generational depression instead of getting it over with quickly like either alternative, basically the midgame argument but emphasizing the length of the crisis, like a weak union is optimally designed to maximize human suffering.

J0-onas 11y ago

German scource in which the president of the ifo institute says that the Grexit is the best alternative for all involved parties. I heard him speak at talkshows and while his argumentation is a bit harsh, it made sense when I heard it. Fact is, no one can prove that his stategy is the best alternative. http://www.faz.net/aktuell/wirtschaft/eurokrise/griechenland/hans-werner-sinn-der-grexit-ist-die-rettung-13658526.html http://www.faz.net/aktuell/wirtschaft/eurokrise/griechenland...

chinathrow 11y ago
The billion dollar question is, if the Grexit will be followed by Portexit, Spexit and Italexit at some point in the future. My crystal ball says, if that's going to happen, the EU or at least the Euro will be toast.
- secfirstmd 11y ago
  As an Irish man, it makes me kind of proud that we have pulled ourself out of the mess enough to be rarely mentioned in such lists any more! We have a lot of problems, including a stupid housing market once again, high debts and exposure because of our export dependance - but i would sure rather be in our position than Greece's.
  - joosters 11y ago
    It's really not that clear that Ireland really has pulled itself out of its mess yet...
    - derriz 11y ago
      It pretty much is clear. And it proves Krugman wrong so I guess since that 2 year old article with its disingenuous graph (sneakily shifting the y-axis to make the up tick look insignificant), he'll never mention Ireland again. Irish GDP grew 4.8% last year - one of the highest in the EU. Unemployment is 30/40% less than peak (although still high at 9.5% but it's falling). The government deficit is falling faster than expected. So despite the fact that apparently "austerity doesn't work", it did for Ireland (and it looks like it's starting to work for Spain and maybe even Portugal and Italy). Here are some more up-to-date economic numbers: http://www.rte.ie/news/business/2015/0312/686549-cso-gdp-growth/ http://www.rte.ie/news/business/2015/0312/686549-cso-gdp-gro...

DominikR 11y ago

Funny that the economist mentions the "history of coups" when in fact these military coups and dictatorships were instigated and supported by the US and UK to prevent a communist government. (like they did in Iran back then) What would happen if Greece defaulted on western debt and aligned with Russia and China is certainly not a repeat of the fascist military dictatorship they had back then. They most likely would have social-democratic governments in the next decades, exorbitant financial investment from both Russia and China and lots of Russian military bases on their territory. This would most likely be the end of the EU (and NATO) as we know it, because from there Russia and Turkey would work on pushing the EU out of the Balkans, which would most likely work considering that all of the populations there have a strong preference and historic ties to either Russia or Turkey, depending on what country you look at. Even in Bulgaria, which is currently in the EU and has a pro-EU government, about 80% of the population have pro-Russian sentiments regarding the conflict in the Ukraine. This is why the EU and US will do whatever it takes to keep Greece in the EU, even if it means that they have to orchestrate a military coup in Greece or that they will have to print trillions to cover for the debt.

tosseraccount 11y ago
Bulgaria, Greece and Russia share an Orthodox Christian and Slavic heritage.
- DominikR 11y ago
  Well, Greeks are not Slavic but the Orthodox Slavic populations certainly view Greek culture (or to be more precise - Byzantine, East-Roman or Roman culture or whatever you'd like to call it) as one of the foundations of their own culture. We view each other as brotherly nations and there's not much that can change this, just as the Muslim populations on the Balkans view Turkey as their brotherly nation. The only reason they all signed up for the EU is because of the promise of a better economic future, not because they want to be part of western culture. During the last years it has become apparent that these promises will not materialize and that's why I expect that the EU will massively contract in the next years.

crdoconnor 11y ago

>For Greece the gains from defaulting would be slight, and the costs potentially vast. Translation: FUD. >True, the country could walk away from debts of €317 billion, or almost 180% of GDP. But that is worth less to Greeks than it sounds. Translation: pretty please don't. >Although the debt is huge, it is at bargain-basement interest rates and repayable over decades. Interest payments until the early 2020s are just 3% of GDP a year. Even for Greece, that is manageable. Translation: You may have had to do with massive unemployment and without life saving drugs by kowtowing to creditor demands ( http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/325955 http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/325955 ), but you'll "manage" if you continue doing it. >Nor would leaving the euro do much good. In theory, with a new drachma and its own central bank, Greece could devalue and gain competitiveness. But Greece’s trade is modest. And it has already lowered nominal wages by 16% without a boom in exports. Translation: we believe so fervently in the power of suppressing wages to improve economic performance, that the idea of trying anything else is literally unthinkable. >The costs of Grexit still outweigh the benefits By contrast, the cost of Grexit would be exorbitant: bust banks, slashed savings, broken contracts and shattered confidence (see article). Politics could be devastated. Syriza, Mr Tsipras’s hard-left party, is anti-market and anti-enterprise. Translation : Attention target readers of the Economist - elites, captains of industry, rapacious financiers - Mr Tsipras is your masked villain. >Neo-fascist Golden Dawn and the Communists, with a combined 12% of the vote, would thrive. Translation : please ignore the fact that they already are thriving thanks to the Economist-stamp-of-approval austerity measures.

randomname2 11y ago
I agree The Economist isn't exactly unbiased here, thanks for pointing that out.
evanpw 11y ago
> Translation: FUD The Greeks have always been perfectly free to stop paying their existing debts, at the cost of not being able to borrow any more money. The only reason they've been negotiating with the Troika and agreeing to the austerity measures you disagree with is that they believed that defaulting would be _even worse_. Even if default is currently the best option, there is plenty of actual uncertainty, and some amount of fear seems justified.

tomp 11y ago

The Economist is quite neo-liberal. > Syriza, Mr Tsipras’s hard-left party, is anti-market and anti-enterprise. Only if by "market" you mean no social security and zero-hour contracts, and by "enterprise" you mean a fire-sale privatisation of state assets.

joosters 11y ago
They are definitely being disingenuous by stating this as a fact rather than an opinion. What political party would ever describe itself as anti-enterprise, for instance?
- tomp 11y ago
  A communist one?
  - joosters 11y ago
    I think you are using a very narrow definition of the word enterprise.

adebtlawyer 11y ago

For longer, drier background reading, recommend "This Time It's Different." One key insight the researchers shared was that outright defaults (complete failure to repay) on sovereign debt are rare. The Soviets did it on the Tsar's debt, but usually what happens is that repayment is delayed. My guess is that Greece will do that rather than switching currencies. The exact terms depend on what their creditors will allow, but their creditors have a lot to lose from failure to reach agreement, too.

argumentum 11y ago

In theory, with a new drachma and its own central bank, Greece could devalue and gain competitiveness. But Greece’s trade is modest Greece is the most enticing tourist destination in the world. It has everything .. history, culture, beaches, food etc. A devalued Drachma would draw an increasing portion of an industry that is poised for dramatic growth as more Indians & Chinese become rich enough to catch the tourist bug. It's world-class shipping industry would also become more competitive against Korea, Scandinavia and Japan. Syriza is not as "far left" as portrayed, and they are not as corrupt as previous Greek governments. Their finance minister, though he has described himself as a "libertarian marxist", has received strong praise from free-market institutions for various proposals. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yanis_Varoufakis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yanis_Varoufakis The big problem for establishment magazines like the Economist has become, is that he dares to think for himself.

elmar 11y ago
libertarian marxist https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_Marxism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libertarian_Marxism
derriz 11y ago
Unfortunately tourist infrastructure determines how much tourism can grow and Greece already has 70-80% hotel bed occupancy so I don't see the scope here to prove a huge economic boost. On the other hand, Greece imports energy, food, medicine and technology and those things will all have to be paid for with hard cash. The result of a 50% devaluation of the new Drachma will be a doubling in prices for basic life necessities. It's clear to me that Syriza's policies have been and will be absolutely disastrous for the ordinary Greek person. Things may have been bad last year but at least there was a small uptick in GDP and employment and seemingly a small improvement in government finances. With a busted bank system, capital controls and no cash to pay for essential imports, I can see Syriza turning Greece into a fully failed state.
- argumentum 11y ago
  Why couldn't you build more hotel capacity? Anyway, airbnb should accommodate more and more visitors as well. Some of those things, particularly medicine & food, are artificially high priced because you are in the EU: http://www.firstwordpharma.com/node/1065529#axzz3ePfuiLQG http://www.firstwordpharma.com/node/1065529#axzz3ePfuiLQG I grant it will be difficult for a year or two, but I predict you will be better off in the long run.

marcusgarvey 11y ago

And I recommend reading this rather long, 4-part series from Der Spiegel for anyone who wants to know how we got to this point. http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/the-ticking-euro-bomb-how-a-good-idea-became-a-tragedy-a-790138.html http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/the-ticking-euro-...