The Greeks have supposedly been living with an austerity plan for about five years but they are in worse shape now than ever before. Tsipras has been making moves like he's getting more friendly with Russia. If he moves more that direction the Germans and the IMF will give Greece whatever they want.
It takes more for an 'austerity' program than simply labeling business as usual with a few cosmetic changes, as 'austere'....
You either destroy your economy when you go bankrupt Or you go destroy your economy when you go for austerity. The Greeks have to pick their poison and deal with it.
Like i said, regardless of the reason... austerity did not help them and now they still have to print their own money or get bailed out some how. The problem didn't disappear, it only became worse.
Whoa. That is only half true. You claim that "austerity destroys a country", when the truth is that excessive debt destroys a country. Austerity is just a symptom of too much spending and not enough income, and then hitting the wall of "running out of other people's money". That said, Greece cannot recover without either debt forgiveness, or giving up the Euro. The former seems unlikely. The latter will also have an enormous downside. They will not recover until they find a path to regrow their economy. I think that getting off the Euro is the quickest path. It will also be the more painful short term.
I read from Paul Roberts that the austerity cut gdp by 27 percent, and of course that cuts in on tax revenues. When you need tax revenues to pay debt, or the interest on it, and austerity reduced tax revenues, the outcome is predictable. I wish they would move out and go with the help offered from BRICS. Of course that deal involves an agreement not to pay back what they owe to the bankers. They do not have a chance in hell with the way they are doing it now, so why not try BRICS? Of course there would have to be some reform with their social programs, for if it is true greeks can retire at age 53, stop producing, and draw a pension, that is just nutty. I wonder if the management is the problem, or the culture? And how many of their rich are weaseling out of paying their taxes? We have that problem here in America, with offshoring of profits in order to avoid taxes.
Yes, their economy has shrunk. But it was inevitable. To blame austerity is to say to their creditors that they should have kept giving them money, and kicking the can. That is to essentially tell the German people, and others, that they needed to continue to give money to their spendthrift cousin, throwing good money after bad, with no hope of getting it back. Good for Greece, but bad for Germany and others. Austerity is not to blame. It was just one of several bad options. Take your pick. All will reduce the standard of living in Greece for a decade, give or take.
All I'm saying is austerity didn't help them. In fact it destroyed them as predicted. Hopefully our right wing politicians learn from this, but I highly doubt it. They'd love to destroy America.
Um.............no. You got that backwards, skippy. It's the Dems that want to destroy our country and transform it into communism.
Your hero, obammy said it himself............he wants to fundamentally transform America. What do you think he meant by that? Communism. Marxism. It's who and what they are. And you are a useful (I can't say idiot) for believing in them.
Impossible to answer. What is possible to answer is that austerity has lead them to where they are at now. Regardless of what happened before. But this was expected by all economists who understand how monetary systems work. That's why the U.S. does not treat its states like the EU. It would destroy us to allow our states to fail. Very dumb move by the EU.
I haven't posted at this forum since last year. I think I might be posting here again. What do you say Paul? Hmmmmmmm!
Essentially the EU has turned these countries in to states, similar to the U.S. Imagine if the U.S. treated its states like the EU, the South would be absolutely bankrupt and destroyed like Greece. Yet with the support of a single monetary system they remain productive. It the EU is not willing to help the losers, they're going to suffer.
The international bankers and manufacturers of military goods manipulated Greece into this financial situation and are now preparing to extract their pound of flesh to punish Greece from failing to adhere to the consequences of the manipulation, which of course enriched many now watching self righteously from the sidelines, especially Germany.
That's a conspiracy that I can actually believe. regardless, Greece was set up to be destroyed for some reason. That's what austerity does! Same thing would happen in America.