poliphilo: (Default)
poliphilo ([personal profile] poliphilo) wrote2012-05-16 10:41 am

Bad Times Just Around The Corner

The Euro is foundering. The guys in charge are preparing to cut Greece loose like a broken spar. I've no idea what the next few years are going to be like for us Europeans, but I think they'll be interesting (in the Chinese sense).

Yesterday Francois Hollande's inauguration parade was rained on and his plane (on its way to Berlin and a confab with Angela Merkel) got struck by lightning. It must be nice not to believe in omens...

[identity profile] michaleen.livejournal.com 2012-05-16 10:51 am (UTC)(link)
Greece should have exited the Euro months ago and if they had anything like a functioning democracy they would have.

With the election of Hollande, there is hope now that the Euro may survive and some good may come of Germany's third go at uniting Europe. Personally, I think if Jehovah took his best shot at the socialist and missed, this is a good sign.

I feel change is coming over the next few years. I don't know whether the move away from austerity will be voluntary or forced, but I think it's coming.

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2012-05-16 11:46 am (UTC)(link)
No-one wants to make that kind of decision- leaving the Euro- unless it's absolutely forced on them.

I reckon a lot of people are going to be forced to make a lot of decisions of that magnitude over the next few years.

Jehovah? I think it's more likely to be Zeus.

[identity profile] michaleen.livejournal.com 2012-05-16 02:04 pm (UTC)(link)
All the dunderheads look alike, to me.

Why wouldn't they want to leave the Euro? A credible threat to leave should have been Greece's first reaction to the crisis. Really, this whole thing is just surreal, like Europe has been sucked into an alternate reality.

[identity profile] poliphilo.livejournal.com 2012-05-16 02:38 pm (UTC)(link)
Apparently being in the Euro seemed like a really good deal- to begin with.

The world of money is surreal.

[identity profile] shanghai7.livejournal.com 2012-05-16 03:02 pm (UTC)(link)
My call is that if Ireland Votes No on 31st may then we will be "asked to leave".

[identity profile] ron-broxted.livejournal.com 2012-05-16 06:29 pm (UTC)(link)
For once in my life I am agreeing with Mervyn King!

My sympathies to 'you Europeans'...

[identity profile] wemyss.livejournal.com 2012-05-16 04:24 pm (UTC)(link)
... and I am of course vy glad not to be one.

(Fog in Channel; Continent cut off.)