Angela Merkel says 'nein' to Greece

[marmar]

Greece’s Aid Plea Snubbed by Merkel in ‘Historic Moment’ for EU Share Business
By Tony Czuczka and Rainer Buergin


March 3 (Bloomberg) -- Greece’s pledge to ramp up planned deficit cuts by half failed to yield commitments of financial aid from Germany, Europe’s biggest economy, to help solve its financial crisis.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said a meeting in two days with Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou won’t be “about aid commitments.” Her finance minister, Wolfgang Schaeuble, said the deficit-reduction measures announced in Athens today were probably enough to convince investors to buy Greek debt.

Papandreou is risking a backlash at home to meet European Union demands for more deficit cuts before allies consider coming to Greece’s aid. As his Cabinet backed 4.8 billion euros ($6.6 billion) of measures, Papandreou said that Greece may turn to the International Monetary Fund as a last resort.

“We have fulfilled to the utmost all that we must from our side; now it’s Europe’s turn,” Papandreou told his ministers, according to an e-mailed transcript. “It is a historic moment for the European Union.” ..........(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=az5SbvZ.sR9A&pos=4

[villager]

1. So the conservative Merkel will let Greece fall apart, and thus the EU

...and imagine her economy will remain unscathed?

:shrug:

[HeresyLives]

4. You can't help others by breaking yourself.

[villager]

14. Or vice-versa?

n/t

[HeresyLives]

15. The EU can survive without Greece.

[ananda]

2. What!?

No more throwing good money after bad?!

Heaven forfend.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

3. And let's see what happens to Greece now, shall we?

Do you think it will be pretty?

[HeresyLives]

5. Greece has to get it's house in order pretty or not.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

8. You can say that all you want because you're not going to live with the consequences.

And that's really the crux of the problem, isn't it?

[HeresyLives]

9. I didn't cause the problem so there's no reason

why I should have to live with the consequences.

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

10. The OP I was responding to was making a clear reference to our bailouts.

In which case, yeah, you would've had to deal with the consequences by following that logic. And mind you, there are a whole lot of people in Greece that are going to suffer, rightfully or wrongfully.

[HeresyLives]

11. Well you answered my post, so I responded.

Obama handled an emergency to fend off worse problems. Whether it holds or not is another matter. A lot of things have to happen before any of it is solved.

Yes, Greeks will suffer no matter what happens, but they weren't paying attention to their own ant and grasshopper story.

[KillCapitalism]

6. Greece just needs to default & get it over with.

Default & hit the "reset" button and problem solved.

[HeresyLives]

7. That would be far worse for Greece

than cut-backs.

[Trillo]

12. One of these days there will need to be global debt forgiveness.

However, just because there needs to be, doesn't mean there will be any time soon. If by some unforeseen occurrence it does occur, it still wouldn't be enough if it was biz as usual afterwards, because the endpoint would be the same, requiring another debt forgiveness at some future point in time. It would, however, end the immediate crisis.

[HeresyLives]

13. We may be coming to that.

And I agree, things would have to be done differently afterwards, or the same crisis would happen all over again.