When is Europe going to learn: austerity does NOT work ?--All the EU is doing is making things worse by forcing austerity on Greece....Greece needs an economy and destroying it's tax base won't help create one. It is not like a household budget no matter how many people without a grasp of national economics keep comparing it to one. Currency MUST circulate to make the economy of Greece recover, austerity takes currency out of circulation and makes the situation far worse than it would have been had nothing at all been done in the first place. Time to put an end to the mad conservative Austrian/German economic school experiments, they have been proven as failures time and time again. Without the US Fed, that pumped over 16 trillion Dollars into BCE, Germany and the like (France, Italy,Spain...), would have gone bankrupt long time ago. more so, the US maneuvered the exchange rate in order to help Germany report "banner exports" and a growing economy (even though Germany is on the brink as well). ENOUGH B.S.!!!...Help the Greek people back onto their feet and the government will have the income necessary to pay down its debt, keep forcing austerity on them and they will just starve while the government coffers remain empty. HORST REICHENBACH - THE "GOVERNOR" OF GREECE should ease the IV Reich imposition of rule !Source : Ambrose Evans-Pritchard- 7:21PM GMT 12 Feb 2012 ****The US, Canada, Britain, France, Greece, and other signatories at the London Debt Agreement of 1953 granted Chancellor Konrad Adenauer a 50pc haircut on all German debt, worth 70pc in relief with stretched maturities. There was a five-year moratorium on interest payments. The express purpose was to give Germany enough oxygen to rebuild its economy, and to help hold the line against Soviet overreach. This sweeping debt forgiveness caused heartburn for the British - then in dire financial straits, themselves forced to go cap in hand to Washington for loans. The Greeks had to forgo some war reparations. Yet statesmanship prevailed. The finance ministers of the day agreed to overlook the moral origins of that debt, and the moral hazard of “rewarding” a country that had so disturbed the European order. The Wirtschaftswunder whittled down the burden of German debts to modest levels within a decade. Germany emerged as a vibrant democracy and a pillar of the western security system. Greece has less strategic relevance, and must comply with tougher terms.
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Scuffles have erupted outside the Greek parliament as tens of thousands of protesters gather there while lawmakers debate legislation introducing severe austerity measures necessary for a crucial bailout to stave off bankruptcy.
The legislation will enable the country to secure a €130 billion ($171.1-billion) bailout from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund, and will also approve a bond-swapping deal with private creditors that will allow Greece to shave off at least €100 billion of its €360 billion debt.
The debate started shortly after 3:30 p.m. local time, and will take at least ten hours, finishing well past midnight. Opponents of the legislation have adopted a tactic of frequent and loud interruptions and objections that may further delay debate
Greece should leave the EU, devalue its currency, claim bankruptcy and start over. Argentina did it , and so did Iceland. The problem is the European (German) Banks wants there money!!!
a german point of view ....When a person or a country for that matter really screws up their economic situation this is a chance to learn something. The long crawl back reinforces that learning process. If a person or a country for that matter behaves irresponsibly, screws themselves up and then gets bailed out by others, the thing they learn is that they can go ahead and behave irresponsibly and it's ok because somebody will be there to bail them out
Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Billionaire investor George Soros predicted weak growth and lingering political tension that could shatter Europe’s economic union even if Greece agrees to austerity measures.
“Right now the European Union and particularly the heavily indebted countries face a lost decade,” Soros said. “It might actually be longer than a decade because Japan that had a similar situation with the real estate boom and the banking crisis has had now 25 years of no growth,” Soros said.
“That will create tensions within the European Union, which could destroy the European Union,” he said. “And that’s a real danger.”
Nicolas Sarkozy, the most unpopular incumbent French president since World War II, is counting on his stewardship of the debt crisis to deliver a second term in what would be an unprecedented election victory.
Sarkozy, 57, has promised to be “captain in the storm” after the weakening economy cost France its AAA credit rating for the first time. With the vote 74 days away, Sarkozy trails his Socialist opponent in the polls with an approval rating of 32 percent. No French president so disliked has been re-elected in the nation’s current Fifth Republic.
Police estimated the crowd today at about 15,000, spokesman Takis Papapetropoulos said by telephone.
"We are looking the Greek people straight in the eye with full knowledge of our historical responsibility," Papademos said in a televised address on the eve of the vote. "The social costs that come with these measures are contained in comparison to the economic and social catastrophe that will follow if we don't adopt them."
The measures equal about 7 percent of gross domestic product over three years and include a debt swap that would shave 100 billion euros off more than 200 billion euros of privately held debt.
"We have to sacrifice a lot so as not to sacrifice everything," Papandreou, leader of the Socialist Pasok party and the former prime minister, said yesterday in Athens. "We must speak honestly and tell Greeks what bankruptcy really means. It means chaos."
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