Why is the Greek debt crisis seen as a Euro problem?

[innonimatu]

Not sure where you are from, but the oil & gas is currently being extracted in the Cypriot zone, so it is very logical to assume it exists next to it as well. I am not a geologist, but geologists have claimed the same. Besides, lets say there is nothing, why fail to declare an independent economic zone and at least look for it?

Portugal. Well, it's not impossible for some oil and gas to be found in the eastern Mediterranean, but with an major tectonic border and active volcanoes running through it, I'd be extremely surprised if the quantities amounted to much. All that tends to break up the rock and scatter any hydrocarbon deposits.

 

[Agent Cooper]

I do expect a few more months of political theater before anything important happens. Spring 2012 should be about right.

Spring 2012 - in +4 months? Not a chance in Hell.

The man basically just screwed Merkel, Sarkozy and their gang. They won't say it out loud in public but that's what it's called.

He has absolutely no leverage with them. Germany and France are not putting together these deals to help the Greek or because they think Papandreo is a nice chap - they are primarily doing it to help themselves, their currency and banks.

There's absolutely no way that Merkel and Sarkozy can live with the uncertainty and stir this is causing the finacial markets. They are losing billions each day. The IMF is not going to approve a payment of 8 billion Euros this month to the Greeks, if they don't know whether the deal will be implemented or not.

I'll be very surprised if this doesn't come to some sort of conclusion very soon.

 

[innonimatu]

Spring 2012 - in +4 months? Not a chance in Hell.
...
I'll be very surprised if this doesn't come to some sort of conclusion very soon.

Damn in, I've been prediction 2012 for the euro implosion for three years now! This will negatively affect my credibility!

Ok, just joking. The reasons I see Greece dragging on a few more months are:
- stock markets crashing is just the normal reaction expected to press politicians into bailing out banks and its hedge funds, but because politicians can't answer immediately, those giving the sell orders are going to find out soon that this time thanking the stock markets will not get them another free trillion. And the markets will stabilize for some more time, just a little lower.
- this referendum thing is still in the air and no one worked out who'll vote yes or no. I don't think that the precise question has even been decided. So far the announcement in this round is just one more weapon in the dispute between Greece and its creditors; the next step is carrying it ot out and campaigning for an exit, or not.
- The EU's national politicians don't have the courage to go for an end-game. If they did they'd have done it already by now. The public mood is still in a "kill-the-messenger" state, and Greece can't easily be put out as the messenger of the bad news (end of the euro) right now. They'll have to be allowed to go through with the referendum and take the initiative of leaving, in order to be blamed. And the IMF obeys the EU's national politicians, namely whatever Sarkozy and Merkel come up with.

 

[SeekTruthFromFacts]

This military reshuffle is still not being reported on major news websites.

What on earth is Papandreaou thinking of?! He's just wiped billions of stock markets worldwide, France and Germany have summoned him to the headmaster's office for a caning, his parliamentary majority is falling apart, his finance minister is seriously ill.... and he decides it's time to fire the leadership of the armed forces!

It's just bizarre. A coup seems unthinkable, so what could it be? The defence minister's quid pro quo for backing the referendum? Military threatening to say they won't take action against rioters (i.e. provoking chaos on the streets and forcing PASOK out)?

Kyriakos, how much might the military still harbour antipathy to the Left (including PASOK) because of Civil War memories?

 

[Dachs]

Kyriakos, how much might the military still harbour antipathy to the Left (including PASOK) because of Civil War memories?

PASOK != KKE

the more relevant sticking point is 1974, I would think, not the GCW