Greece now in default : (

[bochead]

Greece has had to officially default
www.forbes.com/sites/afontevecchia/2012/03/09/on-greece-defaults-and-the-future-of-derivatives/

Will they be able to rebuild now or are things likely to deterioate further for them?

Here's the BBC account of this. It seems things would have been far worse had there not been this orderly default. And Greece may indeed face continuing problems.

Well seeing as the "bailout" has actually left them in more debt than ever , I don't think we will be hearing the last of it.

I don't understand the finer details of this but I feel very sorry for the Greek people - they have really been fucked over.

I've just read this quote from the BBC article:

"Today the problem is solved," French President Nicolas Sarkozy said.

Ha bloody ha.

This comment on the BBC article sums it up nicely:

*Well done to Europe for rescuing Greece......by sentencing people to mass unemployment, huge salary cuts, no pension and an uncertain long-term future. Apparently suicide and homelessness are already rocketing.

As long as though Euro is safe though!! French and German politicians and bankers can congratulate each other on a job well done*

I think Greece should have left the Euro in 2008. They are now burdened with an impossible amount of debt that can never be repaid. But hey, so long as the Eurocrats are happy nothing else matters.

This has been coming for weeks - it's been like watching a car crash in slow motion. Portugal may be next according to some commentators. The UK as per the DT today is on the hook for £4 billion for the IMF contribution to Greece.

The sad thing is that the Eurocrats here in Brussels are so focused on saving the euro that they ignore the pain it is causing to the ordinary people. I have nothing but contempt for Barrosso, Van Rompuy and Ashton, and Lagarde to a certain extent. For them it is nothing but an academic exercise to save their beloved common currency.

In my view the future for Greece is that it will stumble along for another year, then get booted out of the euro in 1 to 2 years. IMO this is a good thing for Greece. The tourist industry (it's biggest export) will eventually recover once it becomes the cheap beautiful friendly place to visit that it once was before all this cr** started.

scaryteacher, yes Portugal may well be next, as may Italy and even France. A hard and soft euro seems more likely at some point in the future.

I do feel really sorry for the people of Greece. But let's be clear. They were not fucked over by Europe but their previous governments who I would argue were at best incompetent and at worst criminally culpable.

They were the ones who borrowed and borrowed despite having no clue how to pay it all back. Then they cooked the books on an epic scale to ensure they could join the Euro. Then as soon as they did and credit was cheaper......borrowed some more.

There's also the mass tax evasion that is/was rife in Greece and a ridiculously generous/oversized state sector.

Given all the above, the country was always doomed. It was just a matter of when.

The only blame the EU members can and should collectively take is the fact everyone turned a blind eye to the cooking of the books in a rush to get them signed up to the Euro. I read somewhere that they made billions disappear so they could meet the 3% deficit rule to join. Then later it was found the deficit was nearer 8%!

You can't blame the rest of Europe for Greece's wows.

It's a country that's been rotten to its core for years: corruption, tax evasion as a way of life and ludicrous pension schemes it could never afford to maintain.

...or indeed its WOES

Unfortunately and almost unbelievably Greece has actually got more debt today than it had last week. The new bonds it has just issued to replace the ones it just restructured are trading at 20% of face value.

Today it was announced that a further Euro 107bn of other liabilities on bonds issued by Hellenic Railway, etc that were also guaranteed by the Greek Govt and not included in the original debt calculatons.

It is widely acknowledged in the bond market that Greece will almost certainly default on the rest of its debt or need another bailout within a year.

Ireland and Portugal will also need another bailout or renegotiation as well. It is far from over.

This is interesting too.....

hat4uk.wordpress.com/2012/03/10/greek-bailout-uncertainty-persists-as-new-sovereign-liabilities-surface/

Bump in view of today's news