Another Greek Tragedy

Like all the famous dramatic Greek tragedies of the past, this one is very real. At least to everyone except perhaps the Greeks.

The Greek PM has struck the deal with Europe but has a hell of a job now to sell it to his party, the opposition, the people and importantly himself. Apparently he will accept the deal but "doesn't believe in it". And he has to enact half a dozen major reforms in 2 days.

However, just what exactly do the Greek people actually expect from this debt crisis?
Are they oblivious to the magnitude of it and that this will be the 3rd major bailout in 5 years?
You don't just get forgiven for debts like this. Germany and France particularly just won't allow it. You could almost say that those 2 nations virtually own Greece.

Previous precedents in Europe have shown how countries dig themselves out of the mire by major economic reforms.

The Greek referendum voted against further austerity, but this deal is exactly that. But what are they offering as an alternative? Nothing that I have heard or read, other than "can you forgive us this debt".

Do they expect to sell goats and olives to fund it?

Is the thinking that "if we hold out long enough", they will relax the conditions because nobody wants the economic consequences of a Greek exit from the Eurozone?

That this thinking is prevalent in a modern economy, is perhaps the "tragedy".

It gobsmacks me!

Whats the capital of Greece ?
About 10 Euros

Missed that one Scrappy - very good!

As far as I can see, the people of Greece openly voted against austerity and against what their PM wants to do. So realistically that is their only real option, to reintroduce the Drachma, re float the currency and go their own way.

It is reported that tax avoidance is endemic in Greece, if they have their own money then its their own problem to deal with it. It is suggested that if they had dealt with that problem then current problem would be far less.

Still on the other side of the coin, Greece was decimated by Germany in WW2 and repatriations from Germany back then were suggested to be nothing like the damage suffered by Greece. It is my understanding that Germany were specifically held back from repatriations because it was reasoned that heavy repatriations from WW1 led to WW2. I don't really have an opinion if any of that is factual or not as its simply what I have been told by other people that have an opinion on the situation.

Whilst it is not the same, Iceland seemed to have done pretty well by jailing their bankers and securing only the funds of their own citizens. They have now paid back several debts and are back on track. Ireland socialised all the bank debt and now owe some massive amount of money with full interest. How they then sort all that out is anyones guess, how Greece get around it is the same in my mind, it is likely to hard for a quick fix and will be a number of years to sort out if there is any actual will on either side to do it in the first place.

Do you mean reparations or repatriations?

I read a book about the Treaty of Versailles that was signed after WW1.

England and France were very severe on Germany imposing conditions that they could never fulfill. The German economy was suffering badly from it and Hitler came to power at a time when they desperately needed some hope and a remedy. He did that so extensively over 6 years that it caught France and Germany on the hop.

So the WWI conditions certainly caused the environment for Germany's actions leading to WW2. But Hitler got a bit greedy by not just leaving his grand plan to only economic measures within Germany.

Given that WW2 ended 70 years ago, surely it is a bit ridiculous to blame that on Greece's current problems.

It is a classic case of too many people not paying taxes while the government spends too much money. Huge public service, full pensions at age 55, rampant corruption, tax avoidance a national sport - wonder why they ran out of cash.
Now they reject the austerity measures and do not want to cut spending, don't want to pay any more tax and expect someone else to bail them out while they don't change anything.

Other countries in Europe took the hard decisions when the GFC struck and have turned their economies around. Greece refused to do so and remain a basket case.