At least that's the sentiment of the Greeks I talked to for a week .... they all consider it a certainty that Greece will default on its debts. Everyone I spoke to said that Greece would never pay back its debt. That it couldn't ever keep up the debt repayments for even a few years, let alone the decades required to cure the underlying problems, and that lending it more and more money was 'stupid' but 'German' because it just made the debt worse, not better.
In fact the consensus was that as soon as the Greek government had drawn the next tranche of EU/IMF funds, the price paid to get this money would prove to be too great, and Greece would default sometime over the coming winter, but before the next tourist season, so that they can devalue and get their competitive edge back. Most of them wished that their government would just do it now, instead of taking them to the edge of a civil breakdown (and possibly a left right civil war), by stretching the country to breaking point, but then defaulting anyway.
There was even a rumour that the UK mint (or other, secret, Greek printers) are printing a supply of Drachmas in secret .... which just goes to show how far things have gone. I managed to avoid all the strikes and travel disruptions travelling there and back, but I was told that the disruptions would get a lot worse over the coming winter. Many Greeks have been thrown into poverty, not so much in the resorts where the holiday trade underpins the economy, but in the bloated public sectors, which are the mainstay of Greek employment these days. It was noticeable that it was mostly British workers in many of the bars in the resorts, when 15 - 20 years ago it was mostly Greek workers, with just a few Brits employed.
We could be seeing this currency return to our holiday wallets next year ..... wouldn't that signal a big reverse in the European federal dream?
In fact the consensus was that as soon as the Greek government had drawn the next tranche of EU/IMF funds, the price paid to get this money would prove to be too great, and Greece would default sometime over the coming winter, but before the next tourist season, so that they can devalue and get their competitive edge back. Most of them wished that their government would just do it now, instead of taking them to the edge of a civil breakdown (and possibly a left right civil war), by stretching the country to breaking point, but then defaulting anyway.
There was even a rumour that the UK mint (or other, secret, Greek printers) are printing a supply of Drachmas in secret .... which just goes to show how far things have gone. I managed to avoid all the strikes and travel disruptions travelling there and back, but I was told that the disruptions would get a lot worse over the coming winter. Many Greeks have been thrown into poverty, not so much in the resorts where the holiday trade underpins the economy, but in the bloated public sectors, which are the mainstay of Greek employment these days. It was noticeable that it was mostly British workers in many of the bars in the resorts, when 15 - 20 years ago it was mostly Greek workers, with just a few Brits employed.
 |
| The Drachma - Many Greeks expect this to return. |
We could be seeing this currency return to our holiday wallets next year ..... wouldn't that signal a big reverse in the European federal dream?
No comments:
Post a Comment
All comments are welcomed, or even just thanks if you enjoyed the post. But please make any comment relevant to the post it appears under. Off topic comments will be blocked or removed.
Moderation is on for older posts to stop spamming and comments that are off topic or inappropriate from being posted .... comments are reviewed within 48 hours. I don't block normal comments that are on topic and not inappropriate. Vexatious comments that may cause upset to other commentators, or that are attempting to espouse a particular wider political view, are reviewed before acceptance. But a certain amount of debate around a post topic is accepted, as long as it remains generally on topic and is not an attempt to become sounding board for some other cause.
Final decision on all comments is held by the blog author and is final.
Comments are always monitored for bad or abusive language, and or illegal statements i.e. overtly racist or sexist content. Spam is not tolerated and is removed.
Commentaires ne sont surveillés que pour le mauvais ou abusif langue ou déclarations illégales ie contenu ouvertement raciste ou sexiste. Spam ne est pas toléré et est éliminé.