world

Greece will not seek another bailout, prime minister says

8 Comments
By DEMETRIS NELLAS

The requested article has expired, and is no longer available. Any related articles, and user comments are shown below.

© Copyright 2015 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

©2024 GPlusMedia Inc.

8 Comments
Login to comment

Greece economic fate was sealed joining the euro through deception, the conditional loan extension agreement only delays the inevitable.

A 3% budget deficit rule was enshrined in the 1992 Maastricht Treaty that paved the way to creation of the euro. On Euro entry the Greek finance ministry reported budget deficit was 1.5%. In reality the shortfall was 8.3%. So clever accountancy made the spreads some 7% vanish by state owned industries issue shares that the 'government' could 'buy', thus an expenditure magically appears as a financial transaction so is removed from the budget balance sheet.

What followed was instead of reforming public finances, Greece borrowed and borrowed to meet that deficit........ PM Alexis Tsipras only realistic course of action is to instruct his finance ministry to negotiate Greece a 'orderly' exit from the Euro zone.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Well said.

But as long as radical left deny and blame others for their predicament as they always do, I can't see how this government can remain in power for long when the unicorns fail to fly in from Narnia or how Greece can remain in the Euro without more handouts.

Both China and more disturbingly Putin's Russia are interfering with promises of cash loans too, despite the government's claims of rejecting further bailouts.

The exchange rate is hitting me badly now and I can only see it getting worse unless the southern European governments get their acts together, something I'm not expecting to happen.

Failure of the Euro will lead to political upheaval across Europe. The rise of the far right that we are seeing today will become an actuality. Couple this with the psychopath running Russia right now and we will have a recipe for disaster.

God that's depressing. Maybe I'll join the left and simply deny it's happening or blame someone else. Here in France we have formed the perfect bubble of socialist Denial. The system is utterly unsustainable but nobody has political will to remove the blinkers.

2 ( +2 / -0 )

Will not seek another bailout. So they're defaulting, then?

1 ( +1 / -0 )

They're playing a juggling act between placating the German chequebook and the nuts on the radical left within Syriza. Something has to give.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

It's a vicious combination of austerity and a mathematically insurmountable budget deficit, inflexible and stagnant economic climate. I genuinely feel for the people of Greece predicament.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

itsrocknroll

" It's a vicious combination of austerity and a mathematically insurmountable budget deficit, inflexible and stagnant economic climate. I genuinely feel for the people of Greece predicament. "

The big elephant in the room is the Euro system. Being stuck with an alien currency means that the Greek government does not have the flexibility it needs to control its own money. In effect it is a system that has disadvantages of a gold standard but none the advantages.

So if Greece does not ask for a bailout, it will have to declare national bankruptcy, and then either beg for new loans of FINALLY wake up and go back to the Drachma. I hope sanity prevails and they do the latter.

It is not as if any of this should be a surprise. The current problems in the Eurozone were predicted EXACTLY by the Euro critics already before the Euro was introduced. Now, they simply proven right.

1 ( +1 / -0 )

Hi WilliB, your analysis highlights clearly the consequences of the inflexible nature of converging the economies of countries without recourse to a political framework. Default is the inevitable when establishing a single monetary policy for such a diverse financial mix of states. EMU is about to move into a political firestorm of discontent, with the possible Russian Federation involvement looming ominously.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

rocknroll:

" Default is the inevitable when establishing a single monetary policy for such a diverse financial mix of states. "

The Maastricht treaty actually clearly states that countries are not allowed to bail other countries. This was written in to pacifiy the Euro critics who predicted that the Euro would lead to massive North-South transfer payments.

So according to the Maastricht treaty, national default by PIIG countries was the only available option. But that was unacceptabe to the Euro politicians, so they have been breaking the contract they signed continually for years. It shows you what the law is worth in Brussels: The paper it is written on.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

Login to leave a comment

Facebook users

Use your Facebook account to login or register with JapanToday. By doing so, you will also receive an email inviting you to receive our news alerts.

Facebook Connect

Login with your JapanToday account

User registration

Articles, Offers & Useful Resources

A mix of what's trending on our other sites