Forums Forums General Forums A - Z Lifestyle What's Going to Happen in Greece ?

With that in mind Casper, they only have 11 million population, and half of them don't work. How do they raise enough tax ? Exports are less than imports, so maybe they tried to treat their people a little too well.
That is, unless early retirement was a way to have jobs for the unemployed young people . Still mainly a nation of e.g. shop keepers, which gives greater opportunity for those who wish to fiddle the taxman.

The figures were fiddled in the same manner as many other countries, it was a known loophole that JPMorgan Chase and Sachs were "selling" to loads of countries. If the IMF/ECB/EU didn't allow for the fiddle it was through choice not ignorance.

That JPMorgan's and Sachs' loans were later bought out is a huge indication that some sort of pact had gone on a long time before this blew up out of proportions, like you say, why would banks make these very high risk loans unless they knew they had collateral to fall back on. Europe was greedy to get more countries to join, perhaps Greece had some assurances behind the scene which were later reneged.

Its reasonably easy to keep track of another countries economy, relatively small sums can be hidden or disguised but not enough to make huge differences - don't forget, that since 2001, Greece's money isn't even its local currency, its been the Euro - you can bet that every penny of the Government's money and assets was carefully accounted for at the changeover even if the paperwork beforehand was inaccurate. Every loan that Greece had would either be in non-local currency or needed to be transferred away from Drachmas (unlike the Deutsch-mark which has never been deleted - Germany still has some assets in Deutsch-marks which cannot be easily tracked).

Even looking at the official public figures doesn't justify the length of rope given to Greece.

Well one things for sure granny, we have no chance of fiddling the taxman, unless of course you are a poor downtrodden actor or pop singer or minor celebrity, who are made bankrupt two or three times but still manage to have luxurious houses and cars, about a year after I retired I received a bill for £200 from the tax, so I sat myself down and used my new found leisure time to review my tax liabilities, and found that HM tax owed me guess what £200, this then went on over two years more, they took the money off me then sent me a check for the same amount doh, in the meantime back in the UK the ordinary person is being made the scapegoat for government bungling and the greed of the financial institutions, oh well my kids will benefit from the inheritance tax, wont they ?

Hang on to all your gold , we might need it in the not too distant future.

Funny you should say that Casper. Two months ago I helped an elderly gentleman with his tax return as he was really poorly.I went over and over and could not work out why they had sent him this last £480 bill .Queried it by mail and they just wrote back it was correct. Coulndt get through on the phone , and in the end the old man said Oh , just pay the damn thing. Today, I picked up his mail , and lo and behold, a cheque for £480. What an incompetant shower.

The Greek finance minister Yanis Varoufakis resigning after the no vote,is very odd. The only thing it can mean--- the Greek Government will give more than he was prepared to. a new eight million Euro loan on the drip which will stop if the negotiations fail point to a done deal. Forty eight hours to sort it outI wish them well.

Dusty, I think the creditors said they would not negotiate if he was to be part of the negotiations. What does that tell us ?

He was sacrificed.

No. I believe his interpretation that democracy is not functioning in Europe the way that it should !!! Others may argue that point though.

I also wonder if this case is a major player for when it comes to our referendum, and we will hear more drastic tales to try to convince us to vote a YES.

I hadn't thought that this fracas could be partly pointing fingers in the Uk's direction but now you mention it I guess they are looking at the bigger picture as well as Greece.

Looks like France is starting to smell the United States of Germany ....



I'm sure this will be smoothed over for the next few months but will rear its head again at some point.

And even the Americans realise that Germany is running Europe, how come our leaders don't seem to be worried about it? ...

SOURCE

I don't think Greece will get a much of a deal, the EU cant be seen to be an easy touch, otherwise those countries that are struggling will all expect the same concessions, as to the French they only think about the French, remember they didn't want us in the EU and they imagine themselves as the hub of Europe.

I am really beginning to wonder if the Syriza Party want much of a deal for the Greeks from Europe, or whether they are manipulating a situation in the expectation of Kremlin support.

Although the Syriza party has been 'modified' there has to be concerns by the other EU leaders. The ex finance minister is a Marxist, so there's the answer to that exit.

Having just pivoted like a weathervane , I'm not sure which way I should be pointing at the moment . The wind's blowing in all directions !!



Read the Wikipedia entry on SYRIZA.

extract:

The coalition originally comprised a broad array of groups (thirteen in total) and independent politicians, including social democrats, democratic socialists, left-wing patriots, feminists, anti-capitalists, centrist and environmentalist groups, as well as Marxist–Leninist, Maoist, Trotskyist, Eurocommunist, Luxemburgist and also Eurosceptic components

So far as Angela Merkel goes, I think our leaders do realise what's taking shape (we do), but as she has also managed to get rid of a couple of EU leaders in the past, they probably are prepared to put up and shut up . There could be a change on the horizon, but if it wasn't for the Greeks , Europe would blindly be swanning along , with the German Chancellor and
Mr. Junker guiding our way in the dark. A can of worms has been given a shake, maybe this whole affair could open the can, which would probably mean disaster for all of us. We'll just take all the refugees from Greece when they flee their own country. Where will we all go to, when we want to flee our own country, any suggestions ? America won't have us. Australia and Canada wouldn't either.

Being a bit of a devils advocat here, but would it be such a bad thing for Germany to be accepted to take the lead in Europe?
Out of the EU countries, who would you rather trust a loan to? Who do you trust to efficiently manage motorways and transport ? Which country makes the cars we consider most reliable? Which of those countries would you like to entrust your EU taxes to , to ensure it's used properly ? If you like an orderly lifestyle , who is going to do it better?