Question on the Euro dollar

The news yesterday said that Greece will NOT get any monetary fundings, but rather "morale support" instead. Also, there have been talks of, if all goes further down the drain, to cut them off from the EMU, not letting them keep the euro.

I dont mean to sound cynical, but isn't it a little strange that a country with a currency so closely connected to other countries, wont get any monetary relieves, when the whoole world decided to cross off the debts of Haiti after the accident? I mean, I am all for it, Haiti has seen a massive tragedy, but it just seems a little... misguided. It's like they only get rid of the debts for pity, while Greece will have to take care of themselves, when they are pretty knee deep in sh*t. Or am I totally off my rocker here?

Greece hasn't been held hostage by the West for 200 years. Plus, even before the earthquake, Haiti was no Greece.

Snappy_Dresser wrote:

Greece hasn't been held hostage by the West for 200 years. Plus, even before the earthquake, Haiti was no Greece.

Would you care to elaborate a bit? I'm not sure I get your point

Citizen Sade wrote:

Captain Bernhardt wrote:

... countries like the
UK who are so lucky to have a strong economy so they don't really need
the EU ...

You are joking, aren't you? The UK economy is in a dreadful state.

Maybe, I don't know current economy that well but I meant for the last thirty years of union. The Uk have only recently detoriated it's economy, but I think they're still not to bad?

Citizen Sade wrote:

Captain Bernhardt wrote:

... the EU has done a lot of good for it citizens!

Give some examples, please.

Eu has made a lot of regulations to protect us, the consumer! allmost all regulations are EU-issued, these range from health regulations on food to the abilities of a simple lawn mower.
The freedom of goods, persons and services across the borders is a real boon to (especially when you live 2 km from the border) that's the reason why it's cheaper to go buy your cigarettes in Luxembourg or buy your car in Poland, but it's also just so damn usefull for holidays and stuff. That is also the reason why so many east european people can come work in our 'richer' countries, though many do not like it, but a unified market makes sure the capital from the richer regions goes to the poorer regio's and though in short term this is a disadvantage towards the richer regions it is making our countries whealth grow more toghether, thus it is helping those poorer than us!
To aid in this there's also a special fund for underdevelloped regions (like South Italy etc.) the only problem is it's the National states that get to spend it.
By being a union we can assert a lot of pressure on the international community. For exporting countries it is a disaster if their acces to european market is cut off, that's how the EU has forced many countries to uphold beter human rights in their countries. In the same manner it prevented the merge of two major airline companies (I believe Boeing and another) which would have had a monopoly on international flights. By refusing a this merged company to land on european air ports the financial loss would have been catastrofic and thus the merge was off, offcourse one country couldn't have pulled this off.
The EU has also done a lot to protect our own agriculture. Like buying surplusses, or they even uphold a minimum price for certain products like milk even if the international price is waay below that.

I could sum up much more good things about the Union but for those interested look it up yourself: http://europa.eu/

Like I said, they do A LOT but the union just doesn't appeal to the public

Opheliate wrote:

The news yesterday said that Greece will NOT get any monetary fundings, but rather "morale support" instead. Also, there have been talks of, if all goes further down the drain, to cut them off from the EMU, not letting them keep the euro.

I dont mean to sound cynical, but isn't it a little strange that a country with a currency so closely connected to other countries, wont get any monetary relieves, when the whoole world decided to cross off the debts of Haiti after the accident? I mean, I am all for it, Haiti has seen a massive tragedy, but it just seems a little... misguided. It's like they only get rid of the debts for pity, while Greece will have to take care of themselves, when they are pretty knee deep in sh*t. Or am I totally off my rocker here?

It is not true "Greece will NOT get any monetary fundings" currently it didnt ask for (and will not).

Also it would be a horrible senario to support greece monetary. Greece is responsibil for its problems (other than Haiti) and already harm als other Euro countrys by weakening the Euro-currency. If other would give monetary support there is no need for Euro countrys reign economical resposibil.

I would hate paying my taxes here in germany knowing it just pays for greece missmanagement.

Keylan wrote:

It is not true "Greece will NOT get any monetary fundings" currently it didnt ask for (and will not).

Also it would be a horrible senario to support greece monetary. Greece is responsibil for its problems (other than Haiti) and already harm als other Euro countrys by weakening the Euro-currency. If other would give monetary support there is no need for Euro countrys reign economical resposibil.

I would hate paying my taxes here in germany knowing it just pays for greece missmanagement.

Ah, I see your point. I am aware, however, that Greece did not request any loans, and they should be credited accordingly, but being a socialist scumbag () I just feel I wouldn't mind aiding any efforts within the union countries. However, you are right, the Haiti comparison was bad, as Greece has apperently put themselves in this situation.

Anyway, thanks for putting it straight for me

I have heard some rumours about Portugal now, too. Anyone up to date on the situation there?

Well, bailing out Greece would be kind of difficult...First, it would be a HUGE burden to the rest of the EU (and contrary to what politicians might claim, I don't think that the other economies are done with the crisis yet), plus you have the other PIGS (Portugal, Ireland, Spain, and perhaps even Italy) who might go down the drain as well, so they might also need a bailout, which then in turn would deteriorate the whole currency...

I believe the strict laws concerning these issues where not made for fun but to preserve the Euro as a strong currency, and to force the memberstates of the EU to take care to have a healthy economy and reasonable government spending. If you throw them overboard, I think the memberstates or at least their population would be kind of unhappy, because I can't see us Germans, for example, paying for all the other countries all the time just because we've got largest economy, especially as there's a lot that's wrong here, too.

Last but not least, I think that while the EU has certain advantages, all the regulation to "protect" us turned into kind of a bureacratic monster. The countries are flooded with laws and regulations (we recently got ordinary light bulbs banned, and there was even a law regulating the arc of the bend of a banana (I hope they scrapped it now...) and all other kinds of weird stuff). It's really costly and in my opinion not really necessary... Estonia had troubles finding enough translators for the 60 000 or so pages of legislation when they joined the EU... to at least give some examples. (I really am in favor of the debuilding of nation states in favor of free movement for people and goods, but I think it's a misdirected effort if the unification of countries leads to even more laws instead of less...)