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Re:Valve Economist Yanis Varoufakis Appointed Finance Minist... by arethuza on Tuesday January 27, 2015 @11:01AM (#8953725)
Out of interest, where do you think the money to pay for pensions, social services and create jobs for young people will come from in Greece in the future?

Surely these all have to be set at a level that is actually sustainable by the Greek economy?

Re:Valve Economist Yanis Varoufakis Appointed Finance Minist... by lmm on Tuesday January 27, 2015 @02:55PM (#8955321)
Greece is what I might call cashflow positive - its government is taking in more money than it's spending in its business of running the country. It's only the bond repayments that are pushing it down.

Government spending should be countercyclical - and smart creditors (which, sure, a government beholden to populism can't always be) would realize that. Prop up the economy now, get growth up again, and then cream off some "repayments" when times are good - I'm sure a contract could be structured to specify that they'd repay their bonds in proportion to e.g. growth above 3%. Running Greece into the ground benefits noone, not even Germany. But sadly, decades on, politicians are still ignoring Keynes.

Or they could have simply defaulted. It's worked out pretty well for Iceland. The argument as I understand it for every nation being perpetually indebted is that it ensures outsiders have an interest in that country being successful - if you own Greek bonds you're less likely to invade Greece. But if your bondholders are forcing a lot of suffering on your country, maybe the costs outweigh the benefits.

Re:Valve Economist Yanis Varoufakis Appointed Finance Minist... by mdemare on Tuesday January 27, 2015 @12:08PM (#8954228)
"Jobs for young people" is not something that's supposed to cost money. The value of what employees produce is supposed to exceed their salaries.
Re:Valve Economist Yanis Varoufakis Appointed Finance Minist... by crdoconnor on Tuesday January 27, 2015 @11:07AM (#8953786)
If they stop making interest repayments that will free up a lot of Euros.

Additionally, if you don't pay for pensions, social services and create jobs then people don't have any money. If they don't have any money they don't spend. And not spending isn't sustainable for any economy.

Re:Valve Economist Yanis Varoufakis Appointed Finance Minist... by kalkin on Tuesday January 27, 2015 @11:16AM (#8953845)
Well, I'm a bit of a radical, so I could give a lot of answers to that question. But even in conventional terms, and even after all the economic destruction of austerity, Greece has been running a primary surplus since 2013. At this point they're borrowing just to pay debt.