Greece draws up drachma plans, prepares to miss IMF payment

Greece is drawing up drastic plans to nationalise the country's banking system and introduce a parallel currency to pay bills unless the eurozone takes steps to defuse the simmering crisis and soften its demands.

Sources close to the ruling Syriza party said the government is determined to keep public services running and pay pensions as funds run critically low. It may be forced to take the unprecedented step of missing a payment to the International Monetary Fund next week.

Greece draws up drachma plans, prepares to miss IMF payment

Will this be the start of something bigger? We'll have the answer soon enough...

well good for Greece!

F the Euro!

a reply to: yeahsurexxx

Sadly its a rolling stone, Greece is like toddler who has a tantrum. If you look at EU debt clock you see Greece actually isn´t worst off when it comes to debt per capita, it has 28,6 per capita when Ireland has 43, UK 33 etc.
It is time for Greece to grow some spine and deal the situation they suppose to like a grown up. They should fix corruption and taking shortcuts and "eating from other players plate "
Unemployment, sure they have that like anyone else in Europe. Scamming the system and taking benefits just because its easy to do ( remember whole island of blind people ) should be stopped..

Im tired of Greece..

Debt clock ( EU )
Link

If only the people paid their taxes like the rest of europe.

originally posted by: dollukka
a reply to: yeahsurexxx

Sadly its a rolling stone, Greece is like toddler who has a tantrum. If you look at EU debt clock you see Greece actually isn´t worst off when it comes to debt per capita, it has 28,6 per capita when Ireland has 43, UK 33 etc.
It is time for Greece to grow some spine and deal the situation they suppose to like a grown up. They should fix corruption and taking shortcuts and "eating from other players plate "
Unemployment, sure they have that like anyone else in Europe. Scamming the system and taking benefits just because its easy to do ( remember whole island of blind people ) should be stopped..

Im tired of Greece..

It's not the per capita that's the problem but the interest and payback period. The UK has one of the lowest interest rates and longest payback periods. Something Osbourne does not want the voters to know......in case they ask how they got this good deal before the tories took over.

As for Greece it's the usual problem : the people at the bottom being shafted for the bad decisions, tax avoidance (on an f..ing grand scale) and corruption by the top echelons.

Oh i love this. Keep giving the finger to the imf! International mother f¥£$€#&$

a reply to: yorkshirelad

Corruption in Greece is not only with top echelons, lower rank officials are in it too.

More they are avoiding to pay back, less their tourism have income. It´s totally pointless to go there on vacation when their attitude is what it is.. We can always vote with our feet.

All i am saying.. Let them go to Putin and ask his help and we will see what Putin says when they are not paying back.

originally posted by: dollukka
a reply to: yeahsurexxx

Sadly its a rolling stone, Greece is like toddler who has a tantrum. If you look at EU debt clock you see Greece actually isn´t worst off when it comes to debt per capita, it has 28,6 per capita when Ireland has 43, UK 33 etc.
It is time for Greece to grow some spine and deal the situation they suppose to like a grown up. They should fix corruption and taking shortcuts and "eating from other players plate "
Unemployment, sure they have that like anyone else in Europe. Scamming the system and taking benefits just because its easy to do ( remember whole island of blind people ) should be stopped..

Im tired of Greece..

Debt clock ( EU )
Link

Greece's problem is that a few corrupt officials were bribed to take on international debt that the country could never afford to pay back. The lenders want their money, the crooks have shipped the money offshore and fled the country, and the little people are left to pay the tab. They were never consulted over these financial deals, so from their viewpoint, why should they be punished?

Other countries were lured into the same debt trap. Ireland was offered low interest economic development loans. They built roads, business parks and universities expanded. The corporations moved in because everything was cheap. Then salaries and house prices rose and they had to allow open immigration to keep costs down. Now they are in the same trap.

a reply to: stormcell

So it is ok with you that other countries go more in debt because Greece is not handling their system and debt? The European Central Bank cannot cut the Greek debt, as it considered to be illegal in the euro government finance. Moreover, the central bank loans to Greece are almost zero interest, as the euro countries have agreed to give Greece back to the ECB's interest income received by the Greek loans.

The parliamentary system is democracy, people (those innocent ones) have voted and they select who sits in Parliament. It is obvious that they have selected corrupted people in charge over and over again. Corruption which runs in big scale and small scale.. in belief that EU pay everything they can keep slacking on.

I think my country has paid enough for Greece and we will never get our money and guarantees which they gave us. They never intended to pay back it seems. Same time we have had to take more debt which has been caused by EU Greece support and Greece not following the deal. Same time our standard of living is dropping down as we HAVE TO SAVE more and more every year and we are being taxed to maximun.. Thank you Greece ! You are a spineless neckless monster.. Putin is what you need not EU !

I think the plans to revive the Drachma are simply more high stakes poker to be honest. I'm pretty sure Greece understands that a default is the worst result possible. They would get booted out of the EU as well if they default. They are just trying to get a better deal.

a reply to: noeltrotsky

There is a saying: Man who ask is not a fool, man who pays is.
Lets see how long EU is fooled. We have parliament elections coming soon and it seems we are voting against Greece loans.

a reply to: dollukka

Your right! The EU was crazy to bailout Greece. If it was me I would have just walked away. I guess the Greek problems happened at a critical time for some other EU countries and if Greece went down the toilet then a few others like Spain and even Italy might have done down soon after. That must have been the main reason to save Greece. Now those countries are more solid so the EU might decide to walk away.

Well I'd say they should go by way of Iceland and kick the banks out and take back their currency. But, I still remember the whole flotilla debacle and Greece had no qualms with doing Israel's bidding. Troubled or not, they are all tied together so tight if one thread gets pulled (Greece) it will all come undone.

a reply to: MrMaybeNot

Former NSA private contractor here.

My understanding is a great majority of the countries collaborating with the WTO and IMF are washing their hands of both agencies, as they were being used to manipulate (read: shift) assets in ways numerous nations were being taken advantage of - namely: the United States.

The US effectively pulled the plug on supporting the WTO because of those abuses - which worked hand in hand with the IMF back in 1999 - shortly after reviewing the protest in Seattle - and had agreed that the organization had received significant notoriety for it's abuse of human rights.

The IMF - as I am sure anyone is aware - is the 'loan servicing' arm of the WTO ... and had been largely manipulated by countries like Greece to attempt to shift assets from countries like the United States and Germany to them.

Loans that don't necessarily go away just because an indebted country defaults.

Their plan clearly backfired.

I suspect that Greece doesn't quite understand they're going to have to play nice to participate in a world economy.

I saw someone say good for them.

I myself am homeless now. I didn't get out of service with the NSA under the best of conditions (I told them to # off for lack of better words). Now I have nearly 140k in debt (mostly student loans). And I have absolutely refused to file bankruptcy because I still feel responsible for my debt.

Those companies and people I owe I still feel they helped me. I can't reasonably walk away from the debt and feel good about myself. So I am throwing caution to the wind and hoping to land the dream gig. I am writing, creatively, and programming a video games - and attempting to 'break into' the entertainment industry where I can reasonably make the seven figures money I need to to live like I want to and pay my bills and obligations.

To me: I look at the debt as an opportunity to think differently.

To become something I never would have dreamed possible - now - out of simple necessity.

I'm not judging Greece for considering walking away from the debt.

But in my opinion. There's better options.

What that is, for Greece, Who the hell knows.

In any case. I'm not asking for advice or judgment on my situation. i am here because I was # on.

In Greece's defense. So were they. But walking away from it all ain't in our best interest in my opinion.

Maybe she needs a bit of time on the streets hanging out with me ;-)

I hear she's fickle bitch though.

Gorgeous too. But fickle.

originally posted by: Rosinitiate
Well I'd say they should go by way of Iceland and kick the banks out and take back their currency. But, I still remember the whole flotilla debacle and Greece had no qualms with doing Israel's bidding. Troubled or not, they are all tied together so tight if one thread gets pulled (Greece) it will all come undone.

Huh??

Iceland didn't "kick out the banks" - they hardened up and enforced controls to get them out of the carp and now live within their means - despite the pain it caused them.

Greece just wants to not to have o pay back the money they borrowed!

Why can't the drachma coexist with the euro? There are already a lot of currencies around with new ones popping up all the time. Greece along with all the other EU nations lost a lot of economic regulation power in the merger. One way to gain back some national political power is for Greece to form its own currency.

Greece cannot stop the Euro and why should they, it makes transacting with other EU member countries heaps easy. If the Euro is going to leave Greece short in managing their own internal accounts then what is the problem with Greece making up their own currency to help balance the books? Why cannot both currencies coexist as there is already many different currencies in this world.

For those that think Greece might get kicked out of the EU, look how hard things are in Ukraine. Greece ain't going nowhere without a fight.

I made a comment in the Guardian many months ago suggesting that Greece should follow this very plan. Go back to the Drachma, default on their payments and give the good old two-finger salute to the rest of Europe. Good on Greece.

Other countries should not be deciding the economic factor of a single country. Greece needs to follow through on its own restructuring and rebuild itself. It needs to step away from Europe for at least a decade, and re-invest in itself. Greece's debt is Europe's debt, so if Europe wants to impose impossible terms on Greece, then Greece has every right to kick Europe to the kerb.

it's a simple fact, if you don't have the money, you can't pay the bills. Europe should no longer aid Greece financially and Greece should hold off paying Europe anything until it has rebuilt its own financial coffers. When Greece has done that it can enter into terms with Europe on paying back some of the debt, but until then, Greece will have to go it alone. Tourists will still holiday in Greece.

The Drachma will NEVER be a parallel currency. Well, maybe for about 5 minutes after release.

It will release as parallel to the Euro, then nosedive immediately upon open trading.

Financial advisors will tell you that the best thing you can do on payday loans (high interest debt) is to stop all payments and work out a payment plan with your creditors, and never borrow from them again.

Greece is essentially doing the same thing.

originally posted by: dollukka
a reply to: stormcell

I think my country has paid enough for Greece and we will never get our money and guarantees which they gave us. They never intended to pay back it seems. Same time we have had to take more debt which has been caused by EU Greece support and Greece not following the deal. Same time our standard of living is dropping down as we HAVE TO SAVE more and more every year and we are being taxed to maximun.. Thank you Greece ! You are a spineless neckless monster.. Putin is what you need not EU !

I'm thoroughly disgusted and appalled of the level of MSM and bankster shill propaganda against Greece - that they are a nation of lazy, tax dodging loan defaulting thieves. The statistics show otherwise.

The longest work hours in Europe and the 2nd in the OECD countries. They work over 2000 hours per annum. Compare that to Germany's 1400 or so.The USA is about 1800 and UK
www.oecd-ilibrary.org...

They pay 22.% of GDP in taxes and for a relative lowly paid country that's quite a lot. Compare that to Germany's 11.5% and the USA's 10.6%. The people who dodge tax in Greece and other countries are almost the wealthy and are very difficult to apprehend. Some pathetic countries are even incapable of apprehending known tax dodgers where the bill paid would be in the hundreds millions/billions.
data.worldbank.org...

As for defaulting. They're not the only European country to do so. Most of these defaults seem to be due to some war or crisis.
en.wikipedia.org...

Greece has become the central target of the economic elites in Europe because, the Greek people have gone from inconsequential protests to political powers. The election of Syriza on a platform of recovering sovereignty, discarding austerity and redefining its relations with creditors to favour national development has set the stage for a possible continent-wide confrontation.

The “Greek debt” is really not a debt of the Greek people. The institutional creditors and the Euro-banks knowingly lent money to high risk kleptocrats, oligarchs and bankers who siphoned most of the euros into overseas Swiss accounts, high end real estate in London and Paris, activity devoid of any capacity to generate income to pay back the debt. In other words, the debt, in large part, is illegitimate and was falsely foisted on the Greek people.

The EU elite have, from the moment in which Syriza received a democratic mandate, followed the typical authoritarian course of all imperial rulers.

It has demanded from Syriza
(1) unconditional surrender
(2) the continuation of the structures, policies and practices of the previous vassal coalition party-regimes (PASOK-New Democracy)
(3) that Syriza shelve all social reforms, (raising the minimum wage, increasing pension, health, education and unemployment spending
(4) that SYRIZA follow the strict economic directives and oversight formulated by the “troika” (the European Commission, the European Central Bank, and the International Monetary Fund)
(5) that SYRIZA retain the current primary budget surplus target of 4.5 percent of economic output in 2015-2017.

To enforce its strategy of strangulating the new government, Brussels threatened to abruptly cut off all present and future credit facilities, call in all debt payments, end access to emergency funds and refuse to back Greek bank bonds – that provide financial loans to local businesses.

There are always bad loans made and the lenders need suffer for it as part of their business for which they make provision.

The German banks made many loans as way bribes to buy German goods and also to bribe Greek and other countries' officials to pay over the odds for German goods. The former Portuguese PM is currently awaiting trial in Portugal for accepting a 20 million Euro bribe for buying German submarines, a case which has been hushed up in Germany who also bribed Greeks to buy their submarines, which were lopsided. HAHAHA!!! So much for German precision engineering.

The evil done here was that the Germans, via their control of the EU, forced their bad commercial loans to be placed on the shoulders of the Greek public. Their action is a disgrace and the more so since the Germans try to disguise it in some form of high mindedness when they are flesh eating Shylocks of the worst order.