With the imminent approach of "Zero Hour" for Greece, do you think that the flailing economy will "make it out alive"? Several financiers and others in the financial market have lost all hope for Greece, who are now faced with an IMF ultimatum of either repaying them 1.6 billion euros ($1.79 billion US), or going right into default! This spells almost certain tragedy for the Greek economy, which has been struggling quite evidently and openly for quite some time, and has now been offered a "life-vest" deal to basically "ditch them out of their debt hole" by the International Monetary Fund. Several possible implications lay ahead for Greece if they fail to make the requirements of this IMF ultimatum/deal, including the likelihood of them being "pushed" out of the euro market altogether. So, in your opinion, and based on the current conditions, what hope is there for Greece?
Greece has made it out of economic turmoil before. I am sure that they will get out of this, but they may inevitably end up back where they were. Only time will tell.
Short term, Greece is in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" space. If they stay in the euro without debt forgiveness and other concessions, they are just going to go from one crisis to the next. If they leave the euro, there's going to be near term capital outflow, currency devaluation and basically a very big headache. It may well be in a better position in a few years time but it's whether people can take the short-term pain for the long-term gain (assuming there is a gain). It's certainly a difficult story.
The Greek government are playing a very weak hand at the moment and they need to realise just what kind of effect is having on the everyday people. Banks and businesses are already being closed till after this gets sorted out, if it ever does. Limits are being placed on how much of your own money your allowed to withdraw, so it's already having a massive impact on how people are living their life. Whatever happens, this will take Greece decades to recover from, if it actually ever does, in my opinion.
I think the government is playing one of the few hands it has. Basically, they are pushing the burden back onto the population to make the tough decision on whether to accept more austerity or accept the pain of euro exit. Syriza was voted in making promises it couldn't keep - an anti-austerity party that was going to fight against paying debts that the country owed. I feel sorry for the people as basically they were sold a worldview that was hard to reconcile with how the creditors see it all. This game theory isn't playing out so well at the moment.
The whole affair got more complicated when Greece decided that the people would choose their own path. Should the Greeks choose to leave the eurozone then I think the problems which they think they are running from would only grow bigger. An exit from the eurozone would be far worse and I hope the Greeks will see that and vote "yes" to stay in the Euro.
Right exactly, plenty of countries have defaulted on their debts before this. It's different this time. I think they will ultimately stay in the union, but it's going to be an interesting week.
After all the trouble that greece has faced in recent years, I believe that greece won't be able to make it. Greece's economy is in a very bad state and it won't be able to recover quick enough for it to pay IMF. I will be looking out for the effects that it will have on the euro and eurozone.
Other countries have been in worse economic straits. Think of Germany after WW1. They were dirt poor between 1918 and 1933 but managed to transform their country to the extent that a few years later they emerged as a superpower. How and where they got the money for all that I don't know but I believe that no matter how bad things get to be Greece like Germany can bounce back up.
They can certainly bounce back up. But they will never be able to pay these loans they have now. It's simple, they already defaulted on one loan and it looks like that will happen with many other loans too in the future. Then they will just loan the money again from the other european countries and maybe, just maybe they will be able to pay that back one day. (probably not but we can always hope, right?)
