Euro

[RandBlade]

This thread needs to be at the new forum!

Wild day today apparently in the European markets with fears that Greece especially, but Portugal and Spain too are at risk of defaulting on debts. Le Monde claimed the EU (France and Germany, ie Germany) would bail-out the nations, the Germans are saying that's never going to happen.

With Greek bond-rates going up to over 7% now it becomes a bit of a self-fulfilling crisis, the higher the bond-rates the more the Greeks need to borrow just to pay interest and the likelier a default becomes.

[Being]

Neither a borrower nor a lender be...and all that. If they had existed in Shakespeare's day he probably would have included rescuer.

[Crazy_Ivan80]

never say never.
We'll see what happens but no one will let the euro fail.

[Hazir]

I don't really see how people can take this crisis talk about the euro serious. Greece may be in deep waters, but the effects it is suffering are exactly those we want irresponsable governments to suffer. And if they do default there sure as hell will be a bail-out package, which won't be put in place because of the euro but because of the EU proper. Germany and France will bear the main burden, and Greece will have to come up with real hard guarantees for deficit cutting rather than the intangible ones in that socalled 'pact'.

Talk about a 'failing euro' only comes from accross the Channel where they still don't quite get it. And of course the Germans would say they won't bail out the Greeks, because as long as they stick to that before a default the pressure on the Greeks to deal with their problems themselves will be maximal.

As things stand Greece can still get money easily, today they rolled over €8bn in loans, they could have gotten €25bn if they had wanted. At a price admittedly, but there is no sign the markets really think Greece will default.

If anything, Randblade, this crisis is going to show that the EMU is working.