Greece, the Euro Zone and Germany - will the Euro fail?

[Callisto]

I'm amazed that nobody is talking about this on here. Greece was (illegally, as I understand it) bailed out to the tune of 110 billion Euros last year. One year on and the Greek economy is practically non-existant, Germany are not keen on another bail-out and there is the distinct possibility that the Euro will fail. The European Central Bank has no money - it can print some or we can bail it out, or it can fail. If the Euro fails the European Union will likely fail and the result will make the credit crunch look like a tiny economic blip.

[byronicheroine]

sinical the middle ground is precious metals, I would say. Silver holds it's value and gold is just going up and up at the moment. Also water is a good bet (along with you beans'n'ammo obviously!)

[alexpolismum]

byron - we have property here. My dh is Greek and we have 3 young children. Everything is in euros. However, my brother back in the UK, who works in an investment bank, has advised us to convert anything we can to pounds. If Greece leaves the euro (looking increasingly likely) the currency will fall like a lead brick, and the euro will also take a knocking. He says too many people are looking into precious metals and it will create a bubble that has to burst at some point.

It's all very scary. Even here in Alexandroupolis we have had a demonstration today, and usually nothing happens here other than 20 or so local communists protesting quietly in a corner. It wasn't violent, though, thank goodness. Athens just looks insane right now. We used to live there - I'm so glad we moved!