A lot of people here seem to have no clue about what's happening in Greece.....

[DFW]

87. Some of that yes, some I disagree with

The world definitely did NOT forgive Germany its debts, not all of them anyway. After bleeding it dry (and the Soviets looting Berlin in 1945, much of which I have personally seen since 1990, when some rogue KGB guys made off with every gram of gold they took from the Reichsbank), some debt was forgiven. By no means all. That is a fiction spouted by Greeks who want Germany to forget all their debt today. Germany was bled dry after 1918, which is one of the reason the Nazis were able to rise in the 20 years following. Juliusturm gold coins still come on the market out of France and Belgium even now.

Going back to the drachma might indeed be good, albeit painful, for Greece. The Germans are close to done with giving them euros. The euro made it easier for Greeks to buy a Mercedes, all 0.5% of them that could afford it. And it isn't Germany that needs restructuring, just Greece. One radical step would be for all people holding worthless Greek IOUs to publicly admit they are indeed worthless. Forgiving the debt would be fatal for the Greeks in the absence of a complete structural overhaul of their economy, and, in part of their society. For that to happen, they would have to swallow their pride and let the EU or some outside authority do it for them, as they never will do it themselves. Not Syriza, not the center-right, and certainly not Golden Dawn. Throwing more money at Greece without forcing a restructuring is like that classic definition of insanity. Tsipiras will dance around the issue as long as he can, but he will fail if that is all he is willing to do. At some point an angry mob will haul him out in front of an ad hoc firing squad. Not figuratively, but like Ceauşescu, the real thing. They do that in Balkan countries.

We should, too, look down on Greece. They are a classic example of what should NOT happen to a country. If its financial institutions are completely dysfunctional, and it produces nothing the world wants and needs, collapse is almost inevitable. It is a classic example of an avoidable disaster that happened because the whole spectrum of their politicians stuck their collective heads in the sand. Tsipiras drew the short stick because the storm clouds came to a head on his watch, but he has showed no more inclination to pull his head out of the sand than any of the other ostriches that preceded him

We will only be Greece in 30 years if our means of production come to a halt, agricultural production dies from a lack of water, and our currency is looked over by a foreign entity. That doesn't give us carte blanche to act like irresponsible buffoons with the economy like Republicans usually do, but it does mean that we have had centuries to build an economy with some safeguards. The Greeks chose not to install them. Fair enough, but they shouldn't scream too loudly when the inevitable result manifests itself.