For help, advice and discussion about stuff not related to aviation. Play nice: no religion, no politics and no axe grinding please.
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By Flyin'Dutch'
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1663645
Colonel Panic wrote:FD, may I humbly suggest you become a politician; after all, the answers to prosperity for all are so blindingly obvious...


No clearly they are not but to reference something with something which is blatantly not true cannot go without comment.

And for the avoidance of doubt it is clear that those in the Eurozone with thicker wallets have an enormous self interest in keeping that project alive. In particular the Germans. They have a massive exposure to the Greek and lesser extent Italian, Spanish and Portuguese economies and if any of those would go 'pop' it would cost the Germans dearly in direct losses.

In addition it would cause the Euro to tank leading to an increase in inflation and inflation is a taboo in Germany as it brings back memories of the days of superinflation in the Pre-War Weimarer Republic.

Very happy to have a discussion about things which are p@rc in the EU and Europe but it helps if we make sure we are all talking about factual accurate matters where these are easily accessible.
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By Flyin'Dutch'
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1663651
eltonioni wrote:@Flyin'Dutch' @johnm

You read Adults In The Room?


Nope, not yet. Is it worth it?

There is no doubt that the Greeks first stiffed themselves by having lived beyond their means - not the man in the street, but Greek society as a whole, with the biggest gainers the Greek ruling classes, only then to be stiffed by the ECB/IMF for the reasons given above.

Varoufakis clearly has his heart in the right place and is smart but not the ability/qualities/support to make the system work in the way he saw it should.
#1663656
Have a read. It’s not really about Greece. It’s about the exercise, abuse, and derogation of power. Varoufakis (like Greece) was a bit of a passenger, a partial observer with an academic’s eye.
By johnm
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1663660
I haven’t read Adults in the Room, but just read a review and will try and get hold of a copy,

The 2008 crisis exposed a lot of financial and political nasty smells on both sides of the Atlantic and some countries notably the U.K. solved the banking crisis by the simple expedient of printing money so that they could replace one set of funny money in bank balance sheets with another set.

I don’t really think much has yet changed for the better and it’s a moot point as to whether the Euro zone could have done a better job....
By cockney steve
FLYER Club Member  FLYER Club Member
#1663720
As far as the cost go to run the EU it is really peppercorn stuff in comparison with what serious money is.

Just putting aside the political reasons why people want to leave the EU, from a pure financial point of view there is no argument to be made that the cost of the UK contribution is peanuts.


Try telling that to the poor sods who have had all their benefits stopped but "Universal Credit" failed to materialise for weeks , leaving destitute families.

Tell it to those using potholed roads, litter-strewn streets, needing a pee but no public toilets, seeing a crime/accident but Mr. plod can't /won't attend.......but , in the big scheme of things, it's only peanuts, like our EC contribution,- but if we had another 27 contributions to our own budget, what size bag of "peanuts" would that make? :pirat:
#1663737
Colonel Panic wrote:FD, may I humbly suggest you become a politician; after all, the answers to prosperity for all are so blindingly obvious...


Good Idea. I second that idea. We could do with some straight talking politicians. Ones that tell the truth and tell it straight are rare. It is blindingly obvious that it won't take much of a negative Brexit dividend to wipe out any gains. Unfortunately our electorate seem to think you can ignore reality.
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