Will Greece leave the Euro?

[Liffrea]

Originally Posted by SwordoftheVistula
My thoughts are that for the rest of the EU, options 2 & 3 are politically more likely than allowing Greece to leave the Euro.

Some senior German politicians have suggested that Greece should consider leaving the Euro as an option.

However, legally, Greece cannot leave the Euro without consent of the other member states, it would breach the Maastricht Treaty. In the short term it would probably break Greece more to leave the Euro than to stay in (the moral of the story? They should have stayed out in the first place, UK be warned).

The Euro is the cornerstone to EU integration, which they seem dead set on.

True but Greece is a relatively insignificant and poor member state (no offence but facts are facts) the richer and more powerful states (Germany and France particularly) are better served by having a solid foundation to build from. If that means shedding excess baggage and picking it up later on……sometimes you have to take a step back to take two forward. I suspect the Euro project will survive the loss of Greece, maybe even Spain, Portugal and Ireland..... as long as France and Germany stay in the game, if either of them bail, then it’s dead.

[Cato]

The death of internationalism is looming on the horizon. Woot!

[ikki]

Actually, the stock market doesn't benefit from it at all.

It was known that unstable southern economies would be causing trouble. The argument was tho that those were smaller than the german, uk, benelux et al, and thus any instability would be but a tiny undercurrent.

That argument however failed to notice its own flaw. It stated that aslong as the share of economy, or more preciesly, the sums would be small... the damage would be neglient.
430 billion isnt small anywhere, 60 of which has to be met soon, the rest following soon after. Or do the banks dare call in those?

[poiuytrewq0987]

There is no real benefit in having the euro as the national currency if your economy is still developing. The only time you will see actual benefits from using a strong currency is when your economy is on par with countries like Italy or the UK.

[ikki]

There is no real benefit in having the euro as the national currency if your economy is still developing. The only time you will see actual benefits from using a strong currency is when your economy is on par with countries like Italy or the UK.

on the opposite, a developinmg economy needs a stable currency, and the euro watches inflation.

Keynesianism has never worked anywhere, the sole evidence for the theory comes from the polish-soviet war, wherein expanded spending caused growth in poland. Problem just was, they were also under wartime austerity, wherein prices were fixed and most products werent available anyway.

And besides, every economy is developing, exceptions being the soviet 1960-> which just stagnated and thus rusted away.

[tired]

The drachma was not worth much ,so it was cheaper for tourists to go to Greece

[poiuytrewq0987]

The drachma was not worth much ,so it was cheaper for tourists to go to Greece

When I last visited Greece four years ago, I met a couple of Greeks who talked about living standards being much cheaper when Greece used the drachma. They said that adopting the Euro caused the price of goods and basic necessities to skyrocket.

[tired]

A lot of Greeks were returning to Greece in their old age,not any more

[Loki]

Even better, I hope this episode is the beginning of the end of the EU. Germany can't keep on funding the rest of Europe for love and charity. Each to their own.

[Vulpix]

Germany can't keep on funding the rest of Europe for love and charity.

Fixed.

The euro and the EU are doomed. It's only a matter of when, not if. It has never been any clearer.