Spain in state of total emergency

[chef]

Well, feck this. I'm off today to go test drive a new car and will be shortly most likely buying a house in cash. Being a good German I have zero debts and life here has hardly changed on a day to day basis in the last 3 years, no shops closing, no people talking about cutting back, life goes on as normal. Petrol price changes are about the only thing that's been noticeable and even those are levelling off and even falling slightly.

[Mich the Tester]

, the problem here was a bobble eyed buffoon in charge of the purse

And the buffoons who put his party and his predecessor in power.

[BlasterBates]

Feck, it's happened again!

The main weakness of the Eurosceptic argument is that it's based more on emotion rather than economic reasoning, i.e. not wanting to be dominated by Germany.

But what you have to determine, is now that the Euro is in place what is the best way forward.

Sure...you can break up the Euro and it will work, but now is not the time to do it.

I think these emotional view points are driven very much by tabloid newspapers.

[Doggy Styles]

Does that qualify as most stupid statement of the year? I think so.
There is no solution within the Euro for the Greeks (and probably the rest of the PIIGS) - unless that solution is abject poverty.
All the Asian countries, Iceland, Argentina, UK etc had/have a way out as they have their own currency, run for themselves not for the benefit of Germany.

Feck, it's happened again!

[EternalOptimist]

You're missing the major fact that the artificially low interest rates the Euro countries enjoyed (which were right for Germany but not for anyone else) meant borrowing was cheap and so people could run up those debts in the first place.
If interest rates are 15% as opposed to 3% people and businesses think harder about borrowing money.

FFS why don't you guys do Economics 101, science 101 etc before spouting bollox on here?

Low interest rates dont force people or governments to borrow to spend. They have the option to live within their means

the problem in Europe is a mismatch of economies, the problem here was a bobble eyed buffoon in charge of the purse

[BlasterBates]

Does that qualify as most stupid statement of the year? I think so.
There is no solution within the Euro for the Greeks (and probably the rest of the PIIGS) - unless that solution is abject poverty.
All the Asian countries, Iceland, Argentina, UK etc had/have a way out as they have their own currency, run for themselves not for the benefit of Germany.

If Germany had the DM, the only country in Europe that gives a glimmer of hope and the financial clout to get the others out (Eurobonds) (and incidentally providing plenty of jobs to Greeks and Spaniards) would be diving into a deep recession as a result of a ....wait for it.......a currency crisis i.e. other currencies collapsing and the DM going sky high.

[sasguru]

If anything the fact that these countries have the Euro ameliorates the crisis somewhat,.

Does that qualify as most stupid statement of the year? I think so.
There is no solution within the Euro for the Greeks (and probably the rest of the PIIGS) - unless that solution is abject poverty.
All the Asian countries, Iceland, Argentina, UK etc had/have a way out as they have their own currency, run for themselves not for the benefit of Germany.

[TimberWolf]

There seems to be an element of a pyramid scheme to borrowing, which is perhaps one reason why money becomes unstable.

The first person to borrow gains a huge advantage over his/her competition and races ahead in his/her endeavours, but as the competition borrows too, it catches up. So to get ahead in the game, borrowing increases further, prices go up, and so on it goes. There probably is net gain to borrowing as money is circulated more efficiently that if sitting idle in some rich person's bank, but then again that rich person probably gets richer than ever when debt/interest are repaid. Until the day his head is lopped off by the impoverished masses that is.

[NorthWestPerm2Contr]

Not just Muslim but the Catholic religion is, supposedly, against interest as its a form of gambling. Interesting that its Catholic countries which are going under...

Fair dos. For me it is an interesting point, whether it is Christianity or Islam or whatever. Apparently God is telling us be careful of dealing in interest, it aint good for you. But we always seem to know better......

[BlasterBates]

If anything the fact that these countries have the Euro ameliorates the crisis somewhat, as load of shock devaluations and forced bankruptcies would have meant a credt crunch would have been more likely.

Anyone believes that banks don't go across borders to gorge themselves on property booms, government debt is living in a Eurosceptic world of fantasy.

Iceland for example. How did Iceland's banks feast themselves on debts which were multiples of the country's GDP.

People would have been queueing up to invest in DM or £ denominated Spanish accounts to earn a 0.5% more interest.