@jasonp: We will probably never know for sure which individual politician knew what since when, but the relevant fact is that the official numbers given from the Greece gouvernment to the EU were faked beyond recognition. Regardless of who else might have known about this fake, this is reason enough to not blame anyone outside of Greece for the disaster.
And it is no surprise that some professor at Brighton University does not like the Euro... a vast majority of UK citizens do not, so consequentially they retained a currency of their own... and have piled up a huge deficit of their own that is in some aspects more scary than that of most southern European states.
@jrd: I'm fine with letting people who irresponsibly lend money to debitors of questionable reliability cope with their losses when the debitor goes bankrupt. But a) is/was the Cyprus gouvernment trying to avoid exactly that bankruptcy of two local banks, thus linking their own fate with that of those banks, and b) is Germany not a relevant creditor of the Cyprus banks. You probably read that the Bank of Cyprus has significantly more branch offices in Russia than in Cyprus?
The most hilarious news of today: After some foreign politicians have scolded the Cyprus gouvernment for running a "Casino Economy" in the past, the Cyprus gouvernment now officially plans to do just that!
If I was to decide, I would not interfere with the Cyprus politics at all - neither by providing additional credit or aid, nor by demanding any specific political or financial measure. The consequence of that pretty certainly would be an immediate bankruptcy of the two Cyprus banks, then let all who lend them money deal with the consequences. Including the Cyprus gouvernment.
We're all to blame. Including the German loans that funded much of the reckless spending over the last decade. We are at the beginning, not the end, the problems are only just beginning to mount up.
Even more fun today... investigators discovered evidence that one of the Cyprus banks has been using special software for "mass deletion" to wipe out evidence of Greek bond purchases. Starting to stink like criminal conspiracy....
Cyprus banks has been using special software for "mass deletion" to wipe out evidence of Greek bond purchases
Issue is that it was not their idea to purchase this junk.
"the Euro is shit" the euro is/was NOT shit. The entities that destroyed it in the last few years are! Oh, have you noticed - we are back to the otherwise useless dollar as a global money. So, who is happy now? And it all happened in just a few years. So its more clear who is pulling the strings, now and again.
This is the main issue that actually caused the American revolution against Britain, not taxes as the history books tell us. The colonies controlled their own currencies and the economy of Pennsylvania was especially successful because it developed a currency base on true GDP, not debt. It was so successful Benjamin Franklin went on a speaking tour in Europe extolling its benefits. The Bank of England, which was privately held, realized their demise in such a system and influenced King George to do away with the currencies of the colonies. Such a system might be the only hope for the economies of the world, but I'm afraid the price for bringing it to fruition may be blood in the streets. The idea of private central banks has become so institutionalized that everyone sees it as the norm instead of asking "why the hell is the currency of any country controlled by private interest, especially those who profit from its manipulation?" This site has a public model based upon the Pennsylvania colony that seems feasible if we are ever able to loosen the iron grip around our throats. http://publicbankinginstitute.org
And now the EMU goes after Cyprus' gold reserves... could Portugal be next?
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