UK national debt

[JohnH]

Superb article re: Greece. Long but worth reading:

http://www.vanityfair.com/business/feat ... nds-201010

Cheers zigzag, I read it from start to finish (most of it with my mouth agape) and it is well worth reading. If what Michael Lewis says is true, it doesn't look like there's much hope for Greece.

If we're as fooked as Greece, then I'm off to Greece.

Trust me makster, we're nowhere near a f**ked as Greece; Britain has a hope of paying down its debts... Greece doesn't.

The closer you are to self sufficient the better...

Yes, indeed. Or as Warren Buffett would say "If you're not it debt, you can't go broke".

 

[Andy R]

Death of an empire .As seen from within.

But only through the eyes of someone completely ignorant of the complexities of national and global finance. I'm just relating how it all affects us and Greek friends of ours who live in a small mountain village.
Please don't take anything that I say as anything more than the views of one old (hey, it's my birthday today ) and uneducated old fart.........

 

[Iwasgoodonce]

Is it true that there are a huge number of chemists in Greece because the state guarantees them 30% on everything they sell? If that is true, I'm guessing that won't last.

 

[JohnH]

Happy birthday, Andy R!

I'm wondering about the wisdom of throwing more money at Greece; the country doesn't have a hope in hell of paying its bondholders back, so rather than throwing good money after bad, perhaps Greece should be allowed to default on some of its debt (in as controlled manner as possible).

Some Greek banks will go bust and some European banks will creak and groan with the appearance of sudden holes in their balance sheets, but at least Greece's debt mountain will be reduced to something manageable, and it will give new hope to the situation.

The current plan of lending Greece money so that it can buy back its own debt sounds as crazy as using a credit card to pay off an overdraft.

And if it is as impossible to collect tax revenues as the Michael Lewis article suggests, then maybe Greece shouldn't bother with a public sector. Run the whole country as a cash-in-hand society, then they won't need to worry about bribery, corruption, non-existent record keeping and tax evasion.

 

[Ernie]

Death of an empire .As seen from within.

But only through the eyes of someone completely ignorant of the complexities of national and global finance. I'm just relating how it all affects us and Greek friends of ours who live in a small mountain village.
Please don't take anything that I say as anything more than the views of one old (hey, it's my birthday today ) and uneducated old fart.........

happy birthday Bud going back to this thread..i think Italy, Spain and Portugal are not yet out of the woods{folding of the eurozone}...personally i cant see the German people let its Chancellor do any more..they are fed up with it{spoke to 2 German friends recently}

Ernie

 

[JohnH]

i think Italy, Spain and Portugal are not yet out of the woods{folding of the eurozone}...personally i cant see the German people let its Chancellor do any more..they are fed up with it{spoke to 2 German friends recently}

The German electorate has already punished Chancellor Merkel in a previous election for signing up to the Greek bailout...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... l-out.html