A question for you Europeans about the future of the Euro......

[Saucycarpdog]

I understand there's a lot of talk in Europe right now about Greece and the value of the Euro going down.

This might be a stupid question but, is any of it affecting you in anyway? I don't know how bad the situation is over there but I would just like to know.

 

[Mousse Templar]

Europe? hardly a homogeneous hub of homelands.

But personally - YES

 

[Loop Stricken]

Europe? hardly a homogeneous hub of homelands.

But personally - YES

What insight. Surely you should be employed by the UN to fix these ruinous problems!

Anyway; I'm in the UK, where we don't have the Euro but are going to get shafted one way or another, either by being taxed for any-fucking-thing to pay for other countries' debts, or pay off our own I don't bloody know; or immigrants fleeing their collapsing nations into our succulent green and verdant pastures.

Hah.

 

[Bertylicious]

Well the thing is with the Euro, with the eurozone, was that it was chuntering along with integration loosly penciled in for 2050. Then Greece turned up in it's purple suit and asked everyone "why so serious?"

Now everyone is losing their shit because the greek economy is utterly corrupt and has been for hundreds of years, the spanish economy is as healthy as cyclops kitten and Italy has spent years being sabotaged by Berlusconi.

Basically all the problems of Europe need to be solved by accelerating what was meant to take the best part of half a century to take place by the end of the month. Now I love Europe, I'm all "united we stand" and junk, but it is difficult to see how that is going to happen.

Personally, I am predicting partial disintegration of Europe and another banking crash which means another 5-10 years of this horse shit.

 

[Bvenged]

I dunno really. I mean, I want full say and control over the euro - as much as Germany has a say, but really I don't want the euro anyway.

'cuz I'm British and that's just how we roll.

[hr]

If Greece goes down, its debt would be absorbed by the EU and the global economic damage would be contained; only EU countries would feel the impact and they could be pushed into a harder, longer recession. More-so euro countries but any EU country that ties its economy in some way to the euro would be effected, such as the UK which bases most of its exports to EU countries.

If Greece were to default it would cause a knock-on affect on countries such as Italy & Spain whose economies are on the edge. If either of those default/leave the euro as a result, then the euro-zone can't contain that much economic damage all at once and it could have a serious impact on other economies around the world such as China, Japan, or the US.

So it's a messy situation for everyone.

 

[Nickolai77]

Yeah a Greek exit from the Euro would be very bad. It would of course hit the Greeks the worst because money would flow out of Greece and into the eurozone, and nobody would want to touch the drachma. It would also further lower investor confidence in the euro, and it would make borrowing even more expensive for countries like Spain and Italy, which is why some people worry that a Greek exit could trigger a domino effect.

The consensus from the recent G8 Conference appears to be that Greece should stay in the eurozone... but how Europe's going to fix Greece's problems we don't know. The main trend is that the whole austerity policy championed by Merkel is facing increasing criticism, especially after Hollande became French president. The problem with moving away from austerity however would be that increased state investment would mean more borrowing and heightened debts.

At any rate, it's one hell of a complicated mess, i don't envy the politicians who have to try and resolve it.

 

[Bertylicious]

I dunno really. I mean, I want full say and control over the euro - as much as Germany has a say, but really I don't want the euro anyway.

'cuz I'm British and that's just how we roll.

[hr]

If Greece goes down, its debt would be absorbed by the EU and the global economic damage would be contained; only EU countries would feel the impact and they could be pushed into a harder, longer recession. More-so euro countries but any EU country that ties its economy in some way to the euro would be effected, such as the UK which bases most of its exports to EU countries.

If Greece were to default it would cause a knock-on affect on countries such as Italy & Spain whose economies are on the edge. If either of those default/leave the euro as a result, then the euro-zone can't contain that much economic damage all at once and it could have a serious impact on other economies around the world such as China, Japan, or the US.

So it's a messy situation for everyone.

A neccesary one though. It is only through crisis that the neccesary measures and institutions for full EU intergration can take place.

It's kind of weird in a way, it's like there are all these battles going on in nations for their immortal souls. You've got Greece voting on the euro, you've got the murky goings on in Pakistan as it wonders whether or not to become a theological, orwellian, nightmare, you've got Egypt and the situation there with the army, Russia and Putin, China and thingybob (the corrupt official whose name escapes me), The UK and the new slavery reform...

Loads going on with grand cultural implications for decades to come.

 

[Melon Hunter]

Yeah a Greek exit from the Euro would be very bad. It would of course hit the Greeks the worst because money would flow out of Greece and into the eurozone, and nobody would want to touch the drachma. It would also further lower investor confidence in the euro, and it would make borrowing even more expensive for countries like Spain and Italy, which is why some people worry that a Greek exit could trigger a domino effect.

The consensus from the recent G8 Conference appears to be that Greece should stay in the eurozone... but how Europe's going to fix Greece's problems we don't know. The main trend is that the whole austerity policy championed by Merkel is facing increasing criticism, especially after Hollande became French president. The problem with moving away from austerity however would be that increased state investment would mean more borrowing and heightened debts.

At any rate, it's one hell of a complicated mess, i don't envy the politicians who have to try and resolve it.

Problem is, austerity is starting to look like a bad thing. The head of the IMF looked over Britain's finances recently, and said that although spending cuts over the last couple of years had been a good thing, we now needed a Plan B that placed less emphasis on cuts and more on growth to avoid being caught in an loop of cutting back, should another financial crisis emerge. Of course, George Osbourne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, tuned out what he didn't want to hear, and said that he was glad the Government's spending cuts had received full endorsement from the IMF and that they would continue.

At the moment, there needs to be more focus on growth, which has been sluggish ever since the 2008 crisis. Cutting back simply does not work when it harms your ability to bring in more revenue, but this is exactly what the pro-austerity policies are doing at the minute. The Greeks might do better in the long run leaving the Euro, as they'll be free to set their own interest rates once again. Of course, the instability then caused in the rest of the Eurozone would cause all manner of panic. It really is difficult to say what should be done here.

 

[Pipotchi]

Yeah a Greek exit from the Euro would be very bad. It would of course hit the Greeks the worst because money would flow out of Greece and into the eurozone, and nobody would want to touch the drachma. It would also further lower investor confidence in the euro, and it would make borrowing even more expensive for countries like Spain and Italy, which is why some people worry that a Greek exit could trigger a domino effect.

The consensus from the recent G8 Conference appears to be that Greece should stay in the eurozone... but how Europe's going to fix Greece's problems we don't know. The main trend is that the whole austerity policy championed by Merkel is facing increasing criticism, especially after Hollande became French president. The problem with moving away from austerity however would be that increased state investment would mean more borrowing and heightened debts.

At any rate, it's one hell of a complicated mess, i don't envy the politicians who have to try and resolve it.

Problem is, austerity is starting to look like a bad thing. The head of the IMF looked over Britain's finances recently, and said that although spending cuts over the last couple of years had been a good thing, we now needed a Plan B that placed less emphasis on cuts and more on growth to avoid being caught in an loop of cutting back, should another financial crisis emerge. Of course, George Osbourne, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, tuned out what he didn't want to hear, and said that he was glad the Government's spending cuts had received full endorsement from the IMF and that they would continue.

At the moment, there needs to be more focus on growth, which has been sluggish ever since the 2008 crisis. Cutting back simply does not work when it harms your ability to bring in more revenue, but this is exactly what the pro-austerity policies are doing at the minute. The Greeks might do better in the long run leaving the Euro, as they'll be free to set their own interest rates once again. Of course, the instability then caused in the rest of the Eurozone would cause all manner of panic. It really is difficult to say what should be done here.

This is too true, that Cretin Osborne has been waffling on about belt tightening and austerity for the past 2 years whilst at the same time lamenting that Britons are not spending enough money to boost the economy.

Well no shit! peopke don't generally spend their money when they might lose their public sector job any day, they save their cash to spend on clean water and shotgun shells.

If I thought the Conservatives were evil I could accept it but the Euro Crisis and the Leveson enquiry are just showing they don't have a bloody clue

 

[veloper]

There's some talk that since the beginning and during all the negotiations, banks and investors have been quietly using that time to minimize the damages of an exit of Greece from the eurozone.

Once Greece gets their own currency back the government can start taxing their country again like they were used to: just print more money and spend that.

 

[Jonluw]

Hahaha!
Norway lives on top of Europe, leeching off all the benefits from being part of Europe, but with - among other things - our own currency, so we aren't being dragged down by the rest of Europe sinking.

If you need us we'll be hanging out up here with our oil, suckers.

Weird.
For the captcha just now, I decided I would try to see if I actually had to write the words in the picture or if I could just write whatever, so I wrote "cocks and tits".
Got a captcha error.
When the new captcha loaded, it said "how quaint".

 

[fenrizz]

Hahaha!
Norway lives on top of Europe, leeching off all the benefits from being part of Europe, but with our own currency, so we aren't being dragged downby the rest of Europe sinking.

If you need us we'll be hanging out up here with our oil, suckers.

Indeed.
God, how I love our oil!

*Fellownorwegianhighfive*

 

[Casual Shinji]

Well, our currency has basically failed. None of the Euro leaders will want to admit it yet, but it's only a matter of time before they do. And the funny thing is that they knew it was going to fail before they even introduced it. They knew the souther areas of Europe were going to play loose with the rules, but stubbornly they went through with it anyway.

So now after 10 years or so of increased wealth, we're stuck with Greece, Italy's and Spain's colossal debt. Which we will have to pay and of which we will see no return at all.

Have I felt the pinch yet? No, but starting next year the value-added tax wil raise significantly as will health care.

 

[wizzy555]

I understand there's a lot of talk in Europe right now about Greece and the value of the Euro going down.

This might be a stupid question but, is any of it affecting you in anyway? I don't know how bad the situation is over there but I would just like to know.

Well unemployment is high, businesses are going bust and governments are cutting services . But the euro is just one of the problems causing it.

 

[Jonluw]

Hahaha!
Norway lives on top of Europe, leeching off all the benefits from being part of Europe, but with our own currency, so we aren't being dragged downby the rest of Europe sinking.

If you need us we'll be hanging out up here with our oil, suckers.

Indeed.
God, how I love our oil!

*Fellownorwegianhighfive*

*Sticky, oil covered, high five*

 

[Amaror]

hmmm, up until now i personally haven't felt anything in germany over here.
We don't have that much problem with depth than the other countries, since we are really creditworthy, germany sometimes even get's 0 percent credits, or at least i heard it got one.
But on the other hand we are paying more than one quarter of the payments to greece alone and since we are strong on exports, it will damage us really badly when the euro, and several countrys with it, collaps financially.
But i, as a person, haven't felt any of that right now.

 

[Guffe]

Finland reporting in.
I haven't noticed too much goin' wrong up here.
I mean prices have gotten a little higher but nothing radical, If one country ahs problems with the currency it brings inflation to everyone else. Same thing as if one State in the US would go bankrupt it would affect the whole country.
If they decide to change the currency then I have no idea what's going to happen.
I mean basically we have more money then than the currency is worth, for those not knowing banks have stuff that equals the worth of the currency like jewels, gold etc which would mean we burn and melt all the Greece Euros'? No idea really what happens then.

 

[Tiger King]

Hahaha!
Norway lives on top of Europe, leeching off all the benefits from being part of Europe, but with our own currency, so we aren't being dragged downby the rest of Europe sinking.

If you need us we'll be hanging out up here with our oil, suckers.

Indeed.
God, how I love our oil!

*Fellownorwegianhighfive*

*Sticky, oil covered, high five*

careful guys there's been a few invasions of oil rich country's lately...

 

[MrPeanut]

Since my country (Finland) is relatively economically secure, we won't be hit too hard (doubtful there would be any significant changes).

But Southern Europe on the other hand...it will be extremely painful either way.

 

[Kerboom]

Anyway; I'm in the UK, where we don't have the Euro but are going to get shafted one way or another, either by being taxed for any-fucking-thing to pay for other countries' debts, or pay off our own I don't bloody know; or immigrants fleeing their collapsing nations into our succulent green and verdant pastures.

In 1975 I believe, the UK needed everyone else to bail them out.

Stop complaining, you guys asked for money before.

OT: I'm Irish...

Yeah. That should explain how I'm getting hit by everything.