Greece to Exit Euro This Weekend?

Greece may have only a 46-hour window of opportunity should it need to plot a route out of the euro.

That’s how much time the country’s leaders would probably have to enact any departure from the single currency while global markets are largely closed, from the end of trading in New York on a Friday to Monday’s market opening in Wellington, New Zealand, based on a synthesis of euro-exit scenarios from 21 economists, analysts and academics

“Leaving is difficult and messy, so anyone who thinks it’s easy is just wrong,” said Lorenzo Bini Smaghi, who left the European Central Bank’s executive board last year, in a phone interview. “The Greeks must be rational and protect themselves from rash decisions that they will live to regret. Leaving the euro is not the answer to their problems.”

If I were Greek I would make my exit as painful and disruptive and dangerous as possible, timed and designed to maximize the damage. I would print my own Euro;s and pay off those US, UK, and German vulture and hedge funds, banks, and investors with my newly minted Euro's. And there is NOTHING stopping Greece from doing just this. Look, Greece didn't just end up insolvent any more than Spain or Portugal or Ireland or Iceland or Italy did. They wee *defrauded* into that condition! Speculators, with the backing of he government hosting those pirates, sold these countries on parking their government reserves in derivatives, credit default swaps, and other Ponzi schemes and they were taken to the cleaners. It was a massive international con and you don't reward cons.

ETA: Linky link

reply to post by Hithe Merinos


This is a likely scenario, but probably not "this weekend". What makes you think it could happen this weekend? Thanks!

reply to post by Hithe Merinos


I think you misunderstand global markets if you think there is nothing stopping Greece from printing off its' own Euro's. A nation currency is worth what others are prepared to pay for it, not what they decide it is worth itself. So, say Greece does go down the road you suggested........they say their new "Euro's" are worth 1 "old" Euro - the markets say no chance, you must be kidding....they are more worth 0.05 Euros - then that is what the markets would start trading in. And then Greece would be in deeper than it is at the moment.

In reality, therefore, Greece has to be extremely careful about how it handles this. I totally believe they need to leave the Euro and should never have joined in the first place but that really isn't the point here.......which is that they cannot leave without new currency agreements already in place.

ETA:

Whatever agreements they do reach, you can absolutely guarantee that the money markets will hammer them as:

a) they will be proven to be bad debtors (so the rich will not be willing to invest heavily unless given guarantees and perks)

b) they have nothing the world wants, apart from tourism and Feta cheese.

Point B is not meant as a snipe at Greece either, more a nod that they do not have a favoured financial sector, they do not make electronics, etc, for global markets, shipping has gone to Panamanian, Phillipines and Chinese based companies, do not have an automotive industry, etc.

Basically, gloom gloom and more gloom for the Greeks.

The Greek people have been royally shafted. They were never meant to be in the Euro. They never met the financial criteria that was required to join the Euro. Yet with the creative accountancy of Goldman Sachs who leant the Greeks enough so that they would be seen as in control of their deficit.

However, that loan would have to be paid back in year with a huge interest rate. The same has happened in other EU nations and is largely to blame for the break down of the Euro.

reply to post by AnonymousCitizen


Sorry, i think my title is a bit mislaeding, not THIS weekend but IN weekend, but then again there is this.

Three officials told Reuters that the instruction was agreed on Monday by a teleconference of the Eurogroup Working Group (EWG) - experts who work on behalf of the bloc's finance ministers.

reply to post by Flavian


Thanks Flavian for clearing things for me, and yes i´m new to economics in a global scale.

reply to post by Hithe Merinos


No worries, wasn't meant in a snotty way, more an explanation.

Feeling very sorry for the Greeks at the moment......

You can even place a bet on it..... which is wrong in many ways:

www.oddschecker.com...

Draw your own conclusions.

reply to post by Hithe Merinos


If they leave the Euro in a "messy fashion" if you will .. they face decades of trade embargoes with their largest trade partners. It's really not in their best interest. Now what the ECB and IMF WILL try and do is get Greece to set up it's own reserve currency and then force it to repay the debts used to keep Greece afloat. The Greek people will have to defend themselves from these vicious attacks.. we know this is what will happen because it happened to Iceland, the only other country in the World to suffer the same fate as Greece, only they told the World to shove it.