The latest threat to the beleaguered Greeks is to eject them from the Euro. There is no way this can be done – there is no such mechanism. Rise up people of Greece and say “Όχι εγώ δεν θα υποστεί για εσάς τους τραπεζίτες” – No I will not suffer for you bankers.
Over half the Greek debt can be attributed to some Nato arms spending spree over the last 20 years the rest to over-zealous bankers high on the discovery of high interests rates with no risk.
If Greece does not agree to the austerity package then Greece does not have to leave the Euro. The debt will be written off, Greece will start again. The banks that lent will need to be rescued and Italy, Spain, Portugal, Ireland the UK will be next. So be it. The system needs cleaning – in fact if you look at what the banks are doing now (they have strong survival instincts), they are offloading bad debt as fast as they can and reducing the size of their balance sheets – see http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/nov/08/europe-banks-retreat-into-mini-crunch – or what the Guardian calls “Beggar-thy-neighbour” economics. BTW this is a well-known policy of a country devaluing its currency to improve its competitiveness and reduce the attractiveness of imports and is not at all relevant to this discussion but anyway…..
