It's all Greek to me?

[cee-dee]

So Greece owes billions of €uro to several lenders, it didn't make it's June payment of €1.6 billion to the IMF and it now expects to be lent more money?

What have they done with all that money? Frittered it away on........ what? Where's it gone?

If you and I owed substantial sums to various lenders and didn't make repayments as agreed, what would the lenders say if we said we couldn't pay what we owe and asked to be lent more?

[upthecreekyetagain]

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@tommy.irene wrote:

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@cee-dee wrote:

It's going to fail:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-33578778

It's already failed? How on earth are they gonna pay back what they owe, what fools thought it was a good idea to lend them that much and why are they even considering lending them any more?

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I agree.. if you lend me £50,000 and i didnt pay it back would you lend me more.

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I don't know.  If by lending you another £1,000 there was a one in twenty chance you'd be able to repay the £50,000 it might be worth a gamble.

[upthecreekyetagain]

The problem Greece's creditors have is that if they don't bail them out then they will lose all hope of getting what they are owed repaid.

[cee-dee]

The thing is, if you cut your losses, you can't lose any more.

However, the IMF and the ECU could seize some of the Greek assets?

[upthecreekyetagain]

Greece's net foreign assets total is a negative figure!

[joamur_gosof]

at least now Europe is lending Greece enough to pay the invisible amount of money to the borrowers IMF etc...ha ,its laughable how gullible peeps on the street folk are supposed to be...just pay off this amount to us lenders of nothing and that should see to it you can all stay together in debt with 'us'  because 'we' lent you nothing and so you owe us everything lol...don't look now folks but whoops financial apocalypse..yeeha

[cee-dee]

"European leaders thrashed out an agreement over the weekend with the Greece government’s promise to sell off “valuable Greek assets” to the tune of 50 billion euros, but it made no mention of where Greece is supposed to find that much property to sell. But as they scrambled for options, officials in Athens saw no way around the blood-curdling prospect of auctioning off Greek islands, nature preserves or even ancient ruins."

[malacandran]

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@cee-dee wrote:

"European leaders thrashed out an agreement over the weekend with the Greece government’s promise to sell off “valuable Greek assets” to the tune of 50 billion euros, but it made no mention of where Greece is supposed to find that much property to sell. But as they scrambled for options, officials in Athens saw no way around the blood-curdling prospect of auctioning off Greek islands, nature preserves or even ancient ruins."

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The Greeks will sell anything, even their own souls, as long as they get to stay in the Eurozone.

Because this will let them keep getting free money from the Germans.  The Greeks don't want to work - they want an easy life, paid for by Germans.

[suzieseaside]

It's obvious you have a penchant for provocative posts.  I don't know where you get your sweeping statements from, and you don't back them up with any evidence.  Perhaps our friend who lives in Greece might pop in again.

I do not believe that the Greeks are lazy or that they don't want to work. I think they suffer from corruption in Government which doesn't help their situation.

They work the longest hours in Europe according to various sources, such as:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17155304

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/05/16/greeks-work-harder-than-germans-who-kne...

[malacandran]

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@suzieseaside wrote:

It's obvious you have a penchant for provocative posts.  I don't know where you get your sweeping statements from, and you don't back them up with any evidence.  Perhaps our friend who lives in Greece might pop in again.

I do not believe that the Greeks are lazy or that they don't want to work. I think they suffer from corruption in Government which doesn't help their situation.

They work the longest hours in Europe according to various sources, such as:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-17155304

http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2014/05/16/greeks-work-harder-than-germans-who-kne...

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Thanks Suzie for the links you kindly provided.  I've read them, but am not convinced. The links look like some kind of snow-job.

I still think the Germans are more hard-working than the Greeks.  The Greeks frankly disgust me, as they just want to steal money, and not work.

Whereas the Germans are honest, and good people, and not like the lying Greeks.

[cee-dee]

The madness continues:-

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-33602003

[jd.linklater]

So the EU lend them 7bn euros and in less than a week 6.25bn is gone repaying debts and late payments. That leaves them in a handy position to get their economy back on track. Where will it end?

[joamur_gosof]

or how to nick 6.5 billion from europe zone and stick it in a bank of ious who have not one asset , owned of course  by.....drum roll.................

[lightblueberet]

"...The Greeks frankly disgust me..."

Wow...steady on sunshine...OTT statement, to say the least ! What exactly have the Greeks done to you...set fire to your house, molested your daughter and/or son, nicked your car ?

As a Brit.expat living with Greeks, I can tell you this...not only are they hard-working, but they've taken us under their wing, showing us a hospitality rare on this planet, and I have never heard them express themselves, in a manner such as yours, against any other nationality !

[******lynda******]

They may work hard, but haven't paid their taxes and they have a high proportion of cash businesses, so no paper trail. If people want public services and pensions, they have to pay for them. We would all like to retire at 58 on a good pension, that we did not have to pay for first.

[joamur_gosof]

nonsense,we all should retire at 50 ,its nothing to do with paying for it first,its all to do with whos taking 'how much' and for what...when the answer to that is addressed,then evryone in the western world can retire at 50 on a good enough pension.

[lightblueberet]

"...If people want public services and pensions, they have to pay for them..."

I fully agree with you lynda, and that accounts for most of the hard-working Greeks ! As for the age 58, I know many Greeks who, after school, did not attend university, and from the age of 18 started work. After 40 years of paying contributions they came out on a pension at 58. What's wrong with that ? In addition, for the men, they also had to pay a lump sum to the tax man for doing over 2 years national service ! How's that for 'icing on the cake' !

We really must not condemn a whole nation due to incompetent governments...these con merchants did nicely by taking their loot abroad ! The rest of us have to manage on the ruins they left behind !

[******lynda******]

in an ideal world, Joamur ...speaking as one who won't get pension till age 65, despite working between 72hrs and 100+ hours a week since I was 18. 7 day weeks, two holidays in the first 33 years and the callouses to prove it. Eased up a bit the past 9 years, though.

[lightblueberet]

Ah...but you will get your pension at 65 lynda, whatever happens ! That, however, may not apply to Greece in the not too distant future !

Some may recall, back in the early 80s, the late Robert Maxwell who put his hand in the till & squandered the pension fund of his employees. Now picture not one, but 300, Robert Maxwells doing the same thing in Greece over the last few decades...are the employees at fault here !

[joamur_gosof]

and its all wrong lynda ..accept in the case of the pure amount of effort you have pur in and I sincerely hope that it pays you back for that effort,

if all job options had the option to do that and the difference between being ok at pension and being very well rewarded for the hours you put in...)in other words yourself ends up with potless money to enjoy..then thats a system I could go with no argument or quibbles attached as you deserve to be able to buy whatever luxury you wish over someone who wants out 2000 hrs easier.

Now the fiscal world and its pretence looks like something completely different to me and it shouldn't...and furthermore as a bone grinder it needen't either.

[******lynda******]

Lol...I don't think the state pension offers a lap of luxury.

Vasos. I would never hold the Greek people entirely to blame for the situation. I have, as further up the thread, merely pointed out that (under existing systems, rather than Joamurs better options) the Greek people have, by and large not paid the taxes they should have done. I also, up the thread, recognised their government's mismanagement and the misrepresentations to the EU when applying to join. Then the EU itself, which knew there were discrepancies, though perhaps not the full scale, and was so desperate to gather Greece into the fold, ignored the failure to meet entry requirements. And the lenders, who knew Greece could not repay but lent more and more.
That is why I think a huge chunk of debt should be written off...repayment of it all is impossible.