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> This is really unprecedented stuff. Several Eastern European countries took a similar dive after they got rid of their socialist governments in the 90s. Then

by sampo 11y ago

> This is really unprecedented stuff. Several Eastern European countries took a similar dive after they got rid of their socialist governments in the 90s. Then their economy started to grow a bit later.

oblio 11y ago
Courtesy reddit: http://i.imgur.com/McyZYL8.jpg http://i.imgur.com/McyZYL8.jpg
- peterfirefly 11y ago
  Most of those countries reformed like there was no tomorrow. Greece reformed like there would always be a mañana.
  - riffraff 11y ago
    AFAIR, most of those countries defaulted on their socialist era debt too. (Except hungary, which was already known as the "happiest barrack in the communist camp")
- sampo 11y ago
  Ok, I take my words back. Only Bulgaria is comparable to Greece.
  - mikeyouse 11y ago
    This is a good example, Bulgaria grew like crazy -- after 35% of their debt was completely forgiven and the remainder was heavily subsidized via very low interest rates. http://i.imgur.com/7zPvyKo.png http://i.imgur.com/7zPvyKo.png For Greece, an equivalent amount of debt relief (a reduction of 46% on an NPV basis) would equate to something like $150 billion in forgiven loans. I think they'd be much more competitive, don't you?
    - sampo 11y ago
      > For Greece, an equivalent amount of debt relief (a reduction of 46% on an NPV basis) would equate to something like $150 billion in forgiven loans. If I understand Wikipedia correctly, Greece was indeed given a 106.5 + 48.2 = 154.7 billion haircut in 2012: "The haircut alone lowered the government debt pile by €106.5bn (equal to a debt-to-GDP ratio decline of 55.0 percentage points), but as Greek banks at the same time were holding almost one third of the restructured debt, this also created the need for the Troika and Greek government to pay for a €48.2bn bank recapitalisation in 2012" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_government-debt_crisis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_government-debt_crisis
      - mikeyouse 11y ago
        Kind of, but not exactly.. They exchanged many of the short term loans with longer term ones, with conditions that demanded heavy austerity. The private banks took a big haircut after years of negotiation but the private loans were a small total portion compared to the public ones. The IMF readily admits how flawed their troika bailout was; http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/06/05/imf-our-greek-bailout-was-full-of-notable-failures/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/06/05/i...

by sampo 11y ago

oblio 11y ago

Courtesy reddit: http://i.imgur.com/McyZYL8.jpg http://i.imgur.com/McyZYL8.jpg

peterfirefly 11y ago
Most of those countries reformed like there was no tomorrow. Greece reformed like there would always be a mañana.
- riffraff 11y ago
  AFAIR, most of those countries defaulted on their socialist era debt too. (Except hungary, which was already known as the "happiest barrack in the communist camp")
sampo 11y ago
Ok, I take my words back. Only Bulgaria is comparable to Greece.
- mikeyouse 11y ago
  This is a good example, Bulgaria grew like crazy -- after 35% of their debt was completely forgiven and the remainder was heavily subsidized via very low interest rates. http://i.imgur.com/7zPvyKo.png http://i.imgur.com/7zPvyKo.png For Greece, an equivalent amount of debt relief (a reduction of 46% on an NPV basis) would equate to something like $150 billion in forgiven loans. I think they'd be much more competitive, don't you?
  - sampo 11y ago
    > For Greece, an equivalent amount of debt relief (a reduction of 46% on an NPV basis) would equate to something like $150 billion in forgiven loans. If I understand Wikipedia correctly, Greece was indeed given a 106.5 + 48.2 = 154.7 billion haircut in 2012: "The haircut alone lowered the government debt pile by €106.5bn (equal to a debt-to-GDP ratio decline of 55.0 percentage points), but as Greek banks at the same time were holding almost one third of the restructured debt, this also created the need for the Troika and Greek government to pay for a €48.2bn bank recapitalisation in 2012" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_government-debt_crisis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_government-debt_crisis
    - mikeyouse 11y ago
      Kind of, but not exactly.. They exchanged many of the short term loans with longer term ones, with conditions that demanded heavy austerity. The private banks took a big haircut after years of negotiation but the private loans were a small total portion compared to the public ones. The IMF readily admits how flawed their troika bailout was; http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/06/05/imf-our-greek-bailout-was-full-of-notable-failures/ http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2013/06/05/i...