I would imagine if the debts are owed in Euros they would be paid back in Euros. If I borrow $100, I must repay $100 dollars plus interest. It doesn't matter if my own currency is Euros, punts or anything else.
And the debt acquired by these countries as Euro's will be paid how? And by whom?
I would imagine if the debts are owed in Euros they would be paid back in Euros. If I borrow $100, I must repay $100 dollars plus interest. It doesn't matter if my own currency is Euros, punts or anything else.
If they could pay back in euros then there would not be a sovereign debt crisis in the first place!
I agree. Living beyond your means. Seems to be endemic..
However, the freedom to devalue certainly benefited Italy in the past.
Yeh, so to ask the question again. If some countries leave, or are cut loose from the euro (on account that they cannot repay their debts) who are to pay those debts, or how are the debts to be repaid?
Or do you advocate a default, which is what will occur if a country leaves or is cut loose.
Oh ye with short memories !!!!!
Do you want a return to Bertie holding the purse strings .
Lets get down on our knees and thank the Gods that we are on our feet
Yeh, so to ask the question again. If some countries leave, or are cut loose from the euro (on account that they cannot repay their debts) who are to pay those debts, or how are the debts to be repaid?
Or do you advocate a default, which is what will occur if a country leaves or is cut loose.
I would take a guess that it will be the remaining countries who would have to pick up the bill and therefore the likes of you and me. Something to look forward to I guess
If a country leaves the eurozone and then refuses to pay it's debt, it is clearly in default. A country in default will find it difficult to fund it's public spending as no external source of funding will be available other than a bail out led by the IMF (aka Argentina). Such bailouts come with strings attached. Another result will be a large devaluation of it's new currency making its citizens poorer relative to those in the Euro zone. Yes, the devaluation will make it more competitive and attract tourists but the locals will definitely be worse off.
I think on the whole, life has been much much better for us within the EU.
Thanks to our insatiable desire to live beyond our means during good times and bad our children will have enormous hurdles to climb.
I actually think we will look back at this time as being a golden time for Ireland.
By golden time, I mean we've never had it so good and this is because as we've put it on the never never...Sometimes it is hard to equate your views. One the one hand you despair our insatiable appetite to keep living beyond our means while simultaneously think we are living through a golden time!
By golden time, I mean we've never had it so good and this is because as we've put it on the never never...
To be fair, Italy was a basket case when it had it's own currency and will be a basket case again with it's own currency. The Italian Lira is not Sterling or the Swiss Franc. Unfortunately, it is easier for people to blame the Euro for every economic problem in places like Italy than facing up to the reality. And I say that as someone spent a significant number of years working for an Italian bank and who has a love for the Country and people but God, they are stuck in the 1950's when it comes to economic and social reform and the impact of globalisation.
I have to say i take exception to describing italy as a basket case, It is still an industrial heavyweight producing cars , advanced machinery for factories and many other things. It is the third largest economy in europe and eighth in the world, its hardly a basket case. There are many countries in the world that are basket cases but none produce cars or advanced industrial goods. Yes Italy has gone downhill since it adopted the euro, therefore the euro cannot be dismissed as a significant factor in holding back italy
I don't think we would have ever been capable of borrowing to the extent we have, both in public finances and private credit, had we remained with the punt?
Didn't stop us in the late 1970s until the mid 1980s when we borrowed like crazy. Didn't turn out too well then either.