Greece wants reparations from Germany for WWII

[MDS]

I'm pretty sure the EU will bail Greece out again. The problem is deep, and this Greece/Germany dance is just the most visible movements in it. But the foundation of the eurozone - shared currency without shared fiscal policy - provides perverse incentives to slower-growing EU members. Germany wasn't complaining when "the EU periphery" was gobbling up all those German exports, were they? Now their neighbors' overspending is coming home to roost, and Greece is just the first of a looming flock.

So now, in parallel with the Greek drama, Germany is pushing for more shared fiscal controls among the EU members. Because however you reorganize the EU, if you superimpose a single currency over several independent states, you're asking for trouble. Not surprisingly, many EU members are resisting such a blow to their sovereignty. So Germany counter-offers with the whole "core vs. periphery" concept of a reimagined eurozone. Like that's not insulting. The Greek thing is interesting, but I don't think the EU will let Greece default until they have some kind of framework for dealing with lower-growth EU members - whether that's shared fiscal controls for the EU, or some sort of differentiated membership status to minimize the impact to which the loose fiscal policy of one member can expose the other members.

I don't think it'll happen this year, but eventually Greece may or may not end up like Venezuela. I think that will depend more on a German calculus than a Greek one.

[Jeep]

I'm pretty sure the EU will bail Greece out again. The problem is deep, and this Greece/Germany dance is just the most visible movements in it. But the foundation of the eurozone - shared currency without shared fiscal policy - provides perverse incentives to slower-growing EU members. Germany wasn't complaining when "the EU periphery" was gobbling up all those German exports, were they? Now their neighbors' overspending is coming home to roost, and Greece is just the first of a looming flock.

So now, in parallel with the Greek drama, Germany is pushing for more shared fiscal controls among the EU members. Because however you reorganize the EU, if you superimpose a single currency over several independent states, you're asking for trouble. Not surprisingly, many EU members are resisting such a blow to their sovereignty. So Germany counter-offers with the whole "core vs. periphery" concept of a reimagined eurozone. Like that's not insulting. The Greek thing is interesting, but I don't think the EU will let Greece default until they have some kind of framework for dealing with lower-growth EU members - whether that's shared fiscal controls for the EU, or some sort of differentiated membership status to minimize the impact to which the loose fiscal policy of one member can expose the other members.

I don't think it'll happen this year, but eventually Greece may or may not end up like Venezuela. I think that will depend more on a German calculus than a Greek one.

Germany (and the other "haves" like Finland and the Netherlands) aren't going to bail out Greece forever, and since the Greek government is busy increasing its domestic spend on salaries and pensions (and no doubt the "vig" to ruling party politicians" to above the amount of money it collects in taxes, whenever the Euro spigot is eventually cut off Greece will be in big trouble.

Of course, the current set of politicians might have enriched themselves enough by then to let a new set deal with the problem.

[Kyle Reese]

Not Greece, but applicable nonetheless.

Venezuelan Bolivar Now Worth More as Toilet Paper Than as Money

[Jeep]

Not Greece, but applicable nonetheless.

Venezuelan Bolivar Now Worth More as Toilet Paper Than as Money

Which means that Venezuela is becoming yet one more country where socialism/communism "didn't fail--it just wasn't applied correctly." Strangely enough, all those countries seem to gotten pretty much the same results. No doubt our own domestic leftists will do a much better job, as one can see already in places like Baltimore and Detroit.