
Caution, train wreck in progress - evo_9
http://www.cringely.com/2012/02/caution-train-wreck-in-progress/
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bunderbunder
_And stocks are rising as powerful people and organizations prop up share
prices just long enough to unload their own positions, leaving the little guys
to drown. Far better to just let Germany take over the payments and own that
Greek jalopy outright._

Giving big financiers an escape route at the expense of everyday folks is so
bad. Bug giving big financiers an escape route at the expense of everyday
Germans is good.

What does Cringley have against Germans?

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freehunter
Is... is the author advocating that Germany buy Greece? Or simply that Germany
help bail Greece out? Either way sounds a bit... unprecedented and unlikely.

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tadfisher
It's happening already -- Papademos was Germany's choice for interim prime
minister. This was in return for the last round of bailouts.

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freehunter
And besides not crashing the EU economy, what is Germany getting out of it?
Germany and Greece are quite far from each other, geographically. It is like
the US buying a controlling influence in Israel in return for a (economically)
stable and growing trading partner? Is it simply plugging the hole with your
finger to keep the boat from sinking? Or are they looking for geographical
expansion?

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tadfisher
This isn't like a US-Israel situation; it's more akin to a California-Alabama
situation (which is actually about the same distance as Germany-Greece).
Germany and Greece are part of this economic bloc called the European Union,
and they share the same currency. Greece's debt is also financed mostly from
German banks. If Greece goes down, so does a large chunk of Germany's economy,
as the banks will either fail or take drastic measures (like putting a stop to
all lending) to protect their balance sheets. Since Germany is the largest
economy in Europe (20% of the EU's GDP), this will basically kill the EU as we
know it and may bring on a global depression.

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freehunter
Right, what I was dancing around asking was "does the author really believe
Germany is going to buy Greece and keep it?" Like California buying Alabama
and now you've got two Californias.

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outside1234
europe is just letting greece live long enough so that they can get a wall of
money for spain and italy and recapitalize the banks enough to cover a greece
default.

after that -- greece goes under the bus.

