Which Sovereign Nation is Next to Default?

[GuyInTaiwan]

cfimages: No one but the family who have made themselves homeless should bear any responsibility in this. Don't want to be homeless? Simple solution: don't fuck around speculating with your house. Once again, you're still trying to offload that responsibility onto someone else with every suggestion you make.

As I wrote earlier, a clause about selling people to Saudi Arabia as slaves might make people think twice about acting like dickheads.

Anyone who continually passes the buck and thinks people shouldn't have to take responsibility deserves nothing but contempt.

[headhonchoII]

So we should go back to dickens time I guess, everything was hunky dory then.

[finley]

So we should go back to dickens time I guess, everything was hunky dory then.

Have a read of William Cobbett's stuff. Start with "The Cottage Economy to which is added The Poor Man's Friend". Although (obviously) some of it is dated, and some of his opinions were, shall we say, rather quaint, his books paint an accurate picture of 18th-century life, and it's surprising how much of his ideas are still relevant today. His analysis of government-run social safety nets (as compared to the rough-and-ready version administered by the church at the time) is instructive.

[GuyInTaiwan]

So we should go back to dickens time I guess, everything was hunky dory then.

At least those times produced some worthwhile art, architecture and literature.

[tomthorne]

Check out the SOAS economist's take on the result of complete Greek default. Talk about delusional

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/ma ... xpert-view

[GuyInTaiwan]

Check out the SOAS economist's take on the result of complete Greek default. Talk about delusional

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/ma ... xpert-view

Yet his is probably simply a less extreme version of how many Greeks look at this situation, i.e. that it's someone else's fault. They will learn nothing from this.

[headhonchoII]

The Greeks should get it over with, drop out of the Euro and default. The current situation solves nothing.

[SillyWilly]

Whoever voted that Greece would be next to default (again), well done! It's almost a foregone conclusion that Greece will suffer a banking system collapse within weeks and then default on their sovereign debt obligations. Guess Spain will have to wait, the Greeks aren't done yet!

If however, the Greeks exit the euro, the door will be wide open for Spain, Portugal, Ireland, or whatever country wants to leave. It will probably lead to chaos, but at least they'd be leaving on their own terms and not some technocrat's.

[headhonchoII]

I see the Greeks exiting and Portugal too. Italy and Spain 50:50 in long-run, I would say Ireland will stay in the Eurozone due to tax and trading reasons. It makes no sense for Greece to try and keep on running austerity programs, default, devalue and get it over it.

[tomthorne]

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/ma ... za-bailout

This is quite an interesting analysis of the current situation in Greece. This quote caught my eye:

"People are not all like the Germans. There is a limit to what Mediterranean people can accommodate."

It's also interesting that the one area that hasn't seen any cuts is the Greek defence budget. Basically because military procurement is rife with corruption. They don't want to lose those kick-backs . I'm also amazed at the proportion of Greek economists who are socialists. Perhaps this is the Guardian cherry picking the ones they want to quote.

A hopeless case.