Greece - the drachma - devalue

[Huple]

Just reading that if Greece leaves the Euro following the elections and the Drachma comes back then prices for holiday makers could plummet by 50per cent. As I,m off to Corfu at the end of June that could be great news.

A Giros, a beer and a vodka and orange all for a fiver.

Good old Greece.

 

[Chicken Runner61]

What about food, water & toilet facilities, let alone transportation, hospitals and police etc etc?

you won't be needing any of that then ?

Oh and take a gun and ammo too in case there are riots or a civil war!

 

[Goldstone Rapper]

Rock the drachma!

 

[The Peanut Roaster]

What's a Greek urn these days?

 

[Huple]

What about food, water & toilet facilities, let alone transportation, hospitals and police etc etc?

you won't be needing any of that then ?

Oh and take a gun and ammo too in case there are riots or a civil war!

What about all them ? Are they all going to be expensive then ?

 

[Barnham Seagull]

What about all them ? Are they all going to be expensive then ?

They have no money to provide them!

Greece may melt down.

 

[The Peanut Roaster]

Just reading that if Greece leaves the Euro following the elections and the Drachma comes back then prices for holiday makers could plummet by 50per cent. As I,m off to Corfu at the end of June that could be great news.

A Giros, a beer and a vodka and orange all for a fiver.

Good old Greece.

If you leave a subtle combination of a skateboard and some marbles at the top of your stairs when your mother in law comes round, the prices shouldn't really bother you.

 

[beorhthelm]

What about food, water & toilet facilities, let alone transportation, hospitals and police etc etc?

local food, water, utilities will be just as plentiful as anytime, just relativly cheaper for the foriegner. so you might have to pay through the nose for Coke, Bacardi and Walkers. stick to the local stuff and do them and yourself a favor. lower prices will probably lead to a tourist boom on the islands, they'll be glad to see you and too busy running the bars to riot.

 

[Chicken Runner61]

What about all them ? Are they all going to be expensive then ?

If/when Greece starts to leave the Euro, its likely the country will start having a few extra bank holidays to stop people panicking and drawing out loads of money and to give them time to get the new currency out to all the banks.

Other countries are not going to want to supply oil, water or much else unless they know they are going to be paid so I suspect much of the remaining commodities in Greece will be rationed and your holiday would be the last thing most people will be worried about.

The black market will boom sending prices soaring in Greece so whilst your holiday price will plummet you might need plenty of dollars or Swiss francs to get an airport transfer to your resort if there is still a working hotel there.

The beaches should be empty though!

 

[Chicken Runner61]

local food, water, utilities will be just as plentiful as anytime, just relativly cheaper for the foriegner. so you might have to pay through the nose for Coke, Bacardi and Walkers. stick to the local stuff and do them and yourself a favor. lower prices will probably lead to a tourist boom on the islands, they'll be glad to see you and too busy running the bars to riot.

You are certain of that are you? people there are already suffering and the austerity cuts haven't really started yet!

 

[Mutts Nuts]

What about food, water & toilet facilities, let alone transportation, hospitals and police etc etc?

you won't be needing any of that then ?

Oh and take a gun and ammo too in case there are riots or a civil war!

The running of the country will not be affected by leaving europe any more than it was by joining , the Germans would like every body to beleive leaving will be a didaster it wont.When other countries see how well Greece improve there economy after leaving they will follow, which is what the Germans are afraid of ,hence all the propoganda Germanys 3rd attempt at world domination is starting to fail

 

[Huple]

Just heard that the Germans are not going there this year. It just gets better and better .

 

[Chicken Runner61]

The running of the country will not be affected by leaving europe any more than it was by joining , the Germans would like every body to beleive leaving will be a didaster it wont.When other countries see how well Greece improve there economy after leaving they will follow, which is what the Germans are afraid of ,hence all the propoganda Germanys 3rd attempt at world domination is starting to fail

You are deluded if you think a country going bankrupt is that simple.

The contagion from this could take out the banks in the UK in domino effect

 

[beorhthelm]

You are certain of that are you?

no. are you certain of your doomed future? many countries have devalued in the past and it not led to bedlam. these days we get fed pictures of riots on 24hr news, missing the localised nature of such incidents. human nature is to make the best of the situation, life goes on, if your life revolves around the tourist £ for 5 months you'll get back to work.

 

[Chicken Runner61]

This is what happened in Argentina and I bet the army kept control there

The Ghost of Buenos Aires

The signs of looming national bankruptcy are plentiful, and bankers in the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo know them well. In late 2001, they were the first to see the coming crash in Argentina. Men traveled across the Rio de la Plata, from Buenos Aires to Montevideo, carrying suitcases filled with US dollars. They stood in long lines at the city's banks, depositing the contents of their suitcases into accounts and safe deposit boxes there. Uruguay is South America's Switzerland, a safe haven for money in times of crisis. No one asks about where the millions come from.



DER SPIEGEL
Argentina in crisis.
Once the Argentine businessmen had transferred their dollars abroad, the second phase of the collapse began. The Argentine government froze all bank accounts, capping the maximum amount an accountholder could withdraw at only $250 (€198) a week. Small investors, those who had left their money in the banks, were the hardest hit. Tens of thousands of desperate citizens stormed the banks, and many spent nights sleeping in front of the automated teller machines.
The last phase of the downturn began in the Buenos Aires suburbs. After consumption had dropped by 60 percent, young men began looting supermarkets. In December 2001, 40,000 people gathered on Plaza de Mayo in front of the Casa Rosada, the presidential palace. There, they banged pots and pans together day and night, until an unnerved President Fernando de la Rúa fled by helicopter.

The image of the fleeing president has burned itself into the collective memory of Argentineans. It marks the worst financial crisis of the last 100 years. De la Rúa's successor allowed the peso to float free on the world currency-exchange markets after it had been pegged to the US dollar at a ratio of 1:1. Tens of thousands of small business owners, who had incurred debt when the peso was still pegged to the dollar, filed for bankruptcy. Unemployment quickly ballooned to 25 percent.

Five presidents passed through the Casa Rosada in the space of two weeks, until Nestor Kirchner, a provincial governor until then, assumed the presidency in 2003. Kirchner informed the country's international creditors that Argentina would not be able to repay its $145 billion (€115 billion) in foreign debt.

Yes Argentina recovered but it wasn't nice

 

[Mutts Nuts]

You are deluded if you think a country going bankrupt is that simple.

The contagion from this could take out the banks in the UK in domino effect

The key word you use is could,the greeks leaving europe could be disastrous but it won`t be, do not beleive every thing the politicians tell you, they use fear to rule in much the same way as the church does.

 

[looney]

Argentina got into shit by linking their currency to the dollar, a defacto single currency or ERM. As the US economy/produtivity boomed do to the techno boom this made Argentine goods unsalable.

Theres a lesson here that people are still unwilling to learn.

 

[Chicken Runner61]

The key word you use is could,the greeks leaving europe could be disastrous but it won`t be, do not beleive every thing the politicians tell you, they use fear to rule in much the same way as the church does.

The way things are going we would be better bailing out Greece again because the losses across Europe are mounting up.

With the problems in Greece already I'm sure the Greeks would be out the door if it was that simple to get out without repercussions

There will be no winners here , its just a of who is left standing. Its not a case of not beliveiving the politicians, you can't close your eyes and hope it goes away, someone HAS to write the money off eventually.

 

[jgmcdee]

no. are you certain of your doomed future? many countries have devalued in the past and it not led to bedlam. these days we get fed pictures of riots on 24hr news, missing the localised nature of such incidents. human nature is to make the best of the situation, life goes on, if your life revolves around the tourist £ for 5 months you'll get back to work.

Yeah but the bit that you are missing is that the Greek debt is denominated in Euros so devaluing the Drachma won't help in any way, shape or form. Unless of course the debt is converted from Euros to Drachma first, at which point everyone holding the debt (hint: pretty much every European bank) gets dicked.

 

[beorhthelm]

...Unless of course the debt is converted from Euros to Drachma first, at which point everyone holding the debt (hint: pretty much every European bank) gets dicked.

what you're missing is all the greek debt is already written off or written down - the banks already got dicked. most has been rolled over into low 30 year bonds and much brought up by the ECB, with conditions attached. while in the Euro its a millstone around their neck, if they get out, default once and for all then they can start rebuilding. its matter of short term pain for long term improvment or a long term moribund nation.