Is the Euro party almost over?

[whore]

Biggest mistake Ireland ever made
was going into this crap!
Now we are paying the price!

Thats abit harsh Gizmo. We would be alot worse off if we were not in the EU when this recession happened. Lets not forget the ECB are the ones funding the bailout of Irish banks.

[guydesavoy]

(Master Bator @ Feb. 12 2010,10:00) What a brilliant idea and a good location for a LB resort...
I'm sure you will find a lot of support for that....

Soros is interested    He told me the Greeks taught us all we know about anal.
Do a search and update the data on planet bator MB

On the Irish question, when I was working there mid 90's, Dublin had become a financial centre, (tax benefits for off shores etc) and US companies were setting up their European operations there (call centres and service industries mostly- again tax breaks/subsidies for foreign corporations). At the time it was a 'Tiger' economy and generated a lot of emplyment. The Irish actually started to return home for jobs ! After that, joining the Euro zone gave an additional boost. I guess it comes down to basics. What 'economy' is there in Ireland (outside tourism, Guiness and Waterford crystal ?) Can it survive or flourish of its own accord, or does it need subsidies ? i.e the Euro...

[gizmo]

(whore @ Feb. 12 2010,14:18)

Biggest mistake Ireland ever made
was going into this crap!
Now we are paying the price!

Thats abit harsh Gizmo. We would be alot worse off if we were not in the EU when this recession happened. Lets not forget the ECB are the ones funding the bailout of Irish banks.

The only one's funding any bailout
of the Irish banks, are the taxpayer!
Mainland Europe does'nt give a toss
about us, or any other little Island nation!

They care about mainland Europe
and no-one else!!

[whore]

Your both right and wrong there Gizmo. The ECB is funding the bailout and the Irish tax payer is going to pay for it in the decades to come in public sector paycuts and taxes. If we didnt have the EU to turn to we would of been alot worse off. We could have ended up like Iceland, who is actually crying out to join the EU.

[pacman]

I think the odds of Greece departing the EU have increased considerably these past few days. They will be back in once they fix their mess.
An article from James Turk (Turk? Is somebody kidding me?)

Feb 12 2010 9:50AM

Greece Broke the Rules

"There are rules, and these rules need to be adhered to." This quote could easily have been made by Sir Isaac Newton 300 hundred years ago explaining how financial discipline would be imposed by his then new invention, the classical Gold Standard.  But no, these are the words of German Chancellor Angela Merkel uttered just yesterday.  In effect, they precisely state how the Greek crisis should be solved.

Greece broke the rules. The Greek government borrowed too much.  It spent too much. Because it broke the rules, it is not worthy to be included in the eurozone. So Greece should be expelled. Doing so would re-affirm the reliability of the euro and indeed, make credible the promise of every European government before joining the eurozone that it would follow the rules.

The rules are there for a reason. They impose discipline by preventing too much euro currency from being created, which was the same crisis Newton had to address. The Bank of England was launched in 1694, but its over-issuance of pound banknotes created a crisis only two years later. The pound was losing value, and the solvency of the Bank of England was being questioned.

King William called on the brightest mind of the day to deal with this challenge, and the brilliant Newton delivered a solution that worked until 1914 €“ when Britain broke the rules €“ and would still be working to this day if the classical Gold Standard had not been jettisoned by governments.  Without rules there is chaos, as evidenced by the mess Greece confronts today.

Expelling Greece from the eurozone in practice would be straightforward. Any euros in Greece should be re-named as drachmas. Henceforth, people would have drachmas in their bank accounts. All Greek debts would be owed in drachmas. This new drachma would immediately fall to a discount to the euro, with the consequent loss in relative purchasing power. Thus, the cost of solving the Greek problem would fall where it rightly belongs €“ on the Greek people who allowed their government to put the country into hock and the lenders to the Greek government who foolishly underestimated the risks.  Fairness and justice require that the cost of Greece's mistakes should not be put on the shoulders of the other EU members.

The non-decision yesterday by the EU leaders leaves open the question of what they intend to do about Greece. They were probably just waiting for this weekend to announce their decision as governments like to operate when the markets are closed. I hope it is the right one €“ that Greece has been expelled from the eurozone, and the euros in Greece today become drachmas on Monday.

*****

James Turk is the Founder & Chairman of GoldMoney.com <http://goldmoney.com/>.  He is the co-author of The Collapse of the Dollar and publisher of the Free Gold Money Report<>http://www.fgmr.com<>.

Copyright © 2010 by James Turk.  All rights reserved.

[Ivor Biggun]

(PigDogg @ Feb. 12 2010,12:21)

(Torurot @ Feb. 11 2010,20:59) Goldman Sachs helped the Greek government to mask the true extent of its deficit with the help of a derivatives deal that legally circumvented the EU Maastricht deficit rules.

"I'm doing 'God's work"   Lloyd Blankfein    

Maybe sheckels are the way ahead

[Snick]

http://online.wsj.com/article....johnson

[Bumpa STIKKA]

Good article.

It still mystifies me that the Euro made it further than a drunken chat in a bar.

A soggy biscuit could have seen that this insane idea wasn't ever going to be a success.

[Snick]

There are advantages, it allows for a large market without hindrances to cross border trade. Before the Euro french francs needed to be changed into Deutchmarks to buy something, this wasn't free and added an extra expense to every transaction. Economies of scale turned a couple of 50 million person economies into a 300+ million economy.

The biggest problem wasn't the concept but the implementation. The rules to follow were broken almost immediately, and weak countries like Greece and Italy should have never qualified for entrance until they had cleaned up their finances.
And of course, no one ever planned for what to do when a big recession hit and the shit hiteth the fan

[Bumpa STIKKA]

There were advantages... for bankers!

Europe had done just fine for thousands of years without this badly managed federalizing which served just one purpose - to make life easier for bankers!

[SamplerDoc]

Its just a cycle

[Bumpa STIKKA]

If it is then someone better apply the brakes!

[donnnnnny]

(Bumpa STIKKA @ Feb. 12 2010,07:52) Greece will be the first but not the last of the idiot 'PIIGS' to go bankrupt.

If you have any Euros my advice is to dump them fast.

Luckily the UK isn't a part of this insane idea for a single European currency so it will suffer less. But even so - if the IMF decides to jump in then even the Brits will be paying for the failure of the Euro. Not to mention that as the currency is trashed then trade with Europe will suffer.

What a mess the Western world is in... and the crisis hasn't even started yet.

With EU states proffering their begging bowls and the largest companies soon defaulting on their pension schemes I would recommend anyone with any Euros or invested capital to seriously take a fresh look at the dollar!

Much of my money is safely in baht!

Britain and Germany are the only net overall contributors to the EEC mate, so It will be the brits and germany that bail,out the pigs.
fucking hell why did the British ever join this shit pit of crap. lol

[donnnnnny]

(Ivor Biggun @ Feb. 13 2010,10:56)

(PigDogg @ Feb. 12 2010,12:21)

(Torurot @ Feb. 11 2010,20:59) Goldman Sachs helped the Greek government to mask the true extent of its deficit with the help of a derivatives deal that legally circumvented the EU Maastricht deficit rules.

"I'm doing 'God's work"   Lloyd Blankfein    

Maybe sheckels are the way ahead  

spair a sheckle for an x old begger then???

[Ivor Biggun]

We'd better enlighten the others. http://montypython.50webs.com/script...of_Brian/6.htm