Can Greece stay in the EU and avoid further problems ?

[steve2470]

I don't know. From what I've read, it appears the austerity demands are not going anywhere, which seem to severely depress the Greek economy. Everything I've read points to either: a) Greece stays in the EU and continues its downward trend or b) it leaves the EU and possibly has an even greater depression coupled with perhaps martial law and a dictatorship/military junta all over again. I've not read anyone speculating that the unrest would lead to a leftward shift.

Comments anyone ? Thanks in advance for your time.

[Art_from_Ark]

1. I was talking to someone whose company has a subsidiary in Greece

He said a lot of the rumors of creative ways to avoid paying taxes were true. For example, according to him tax is paid on a new house only when it is completed. So a lot of people might leave one window or minor part of a house unfinished to avoid paying the tax. He doesn't see an easy way out of this mess for Greece unless they change their economic ways, which he thinks is next to impossible.

[Lns.Lns]

2. I think the question might be can any southern nation stay in and avoid problems

The problem I see with the Euro currency is that all the other nations become dominated by the more economically sound nations. Even France was getting on board at the beginning of this economic throw down before the people voted Sarkozy out. Economics is one of my favored reading subjects and I can not help but get the distinct impression that Germany in particular is once again trying to become master of the world (Europe first), only this time it is weapons of financial destruction. They are clever people, no denying. They have structured a strong society for their own, which is something we could learn from. However, dominating the lives of the other countries citizens is different than teaching why a certain structure might be better and letting them evolve toward that.

In my opinion, the best thing that could happen is the entire Euro currency should be abolished. They could designate a specific pegging that at least for a year after it's dissolution, each currency would retain the same value as if it was a Euro. That would avoid the bank runs and any remaining Euros after the dissolution pegging period would become worth an average of all the Euro countries currency values. That would encourage people to turn in their Euros. Depending on an individual expertise in FX they could try and play currency values, but then look what happened to Austria when they were so clever that they took on Hungarian mortgages denominated in Swiss Francs. Most people would just go to their own currency and the devaluations needed to help them out would be gradually felt and not so dramatic. The economic pick up (of course if handled appropriately), would more than make up for the devaluations.

Anyway, that is my opinion, so take it for what it is worth.