Greece having gotten a write off throws us back on our resources but we will be better for it.
It's a roll of the dice by the PM. Risky as hell but if he can get it passed, it might lead to a better political climate and less unrest.
Wouldn't be surprised if the wording of the question was something like 'Do you wish to remain in the Euro'? rather than asking do you support the austerity and bailout packages.
It's a roll of the dice by the PM. Risky as hell but if he can get it passed, it might lead to a better political climate and less unrest. ...
Amen to that. Greece probably needs closer to an 80% default, and a referendum will allow the politicians to force this. A 50% default will still leave them with 120% debt/GDP, which is still not close to a solution; about half that would be required for a country to be able to recover.In the last sting from a dying wasp, outgoiing ECB top knob Trichet says no, nein and non to a write-down of other countries debt a la Greek style. Greece was a special case and everyone else must cough-up, says Trichet. From the getgo this debt foisted on us was immoral. We should never have agreed that stupid bank rescue.
There may be valid reasons not to repudiate this debt now. I don't know if there are? The only ones that would matter to me would be that doing it negatively effects our self-interest, I personally don't give a hoot for French German or British banks that made bad lending decisions. That's how Capitalism is supposed to work.
I was actually thinking that earlier today. It does seem from some interview snippets with Papandreou that the question will be more in line with "should we leave the Euro" rather than "should we accept the latest bail out deal".Wouldn't be surprised if the wording of the question was something like 'Do you wish to remain in the Euro'? rather than asking do you support the austerity and bailout packages.
David McWilliams is a strong proponent of Ireland exiting the Euro and embracing a currency (EURO lite/Punt) that can be devalued and thus allowing more competitiveness with our main trading partners (UK & USA). I don't think its that simple. We will still carry the country's debt in hard EUROs and would potentially lose the support of the ECB and stronger EURO countries. We could also risk losing the 150B of liquidity support for our Banks. Similarily with the Greeks. They could find the pain to be a lot more accute outside the currency than in.
The main problem in assessing the alternative options is the absence of any clarity on the potential upsides/downsides of each option. Most economists appear to be biased towards their own partiality and tend to provide very little in-depth analysis on the alternatives.
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