Greece draws up drachma plans, prepares to miss IMF payment

[PoliticAverse]

Greece is drawing up drastic plans to nationalise the country's banking system and introduce a parallel currency to pay bills unless the eurozone takes steps to defuse the simmering crisis and soften its demands.

Sources close to the ruling Syriza party said the government is determined to keep public services running and pay pensions as funds run critically low. It may be forced to take the unprecedented step of missing a payment to the International Monetary Fund next week.

Greece no longer has enough money to pay the IMF €458m on April 9 and also to cover payments for salaries and social security on April 14, unless the eurozone agrees to disburse the next tranche of its interim bail-out deal in time.

“We are a Left-wing government. If we have to choose between a default to the IMF or a default to our own people, it is a no-brainer,” said a senior official.

Read the rest at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/11513341/Greece-draws-up-drachma-plans-prepares-to-miss-IMF-payment.html

[newfie11]

1. Can Greece join the BRICS? NT

[2naSalit]

2. Good for them

This could be the first nail in the EU coffin and it won't be the last which I currently consider a potentially good thing.

[geek tragedy]

4. The EU will continue with or without Greece. nt

[2naSalit]

5. Agreed

however, should other countries put their peoples' daily needs first and debt payments second like Greece, it could eventually turn out to be the unraveling of the EU. Personally, I think the EU was a big mistake and I do hope it goes away... that's my opinion.

[geek tragedy]

6. The two names that come up are Italy and Spain.

But, there'd be very little appetite from either of those countries do go nuclear.

The Greeks are talking about doing it because they're desperate.

[2naSalit]

7. Probably so...

though Greece is desperate because of the austerity demands and it doesn't sound like the EU is concerned over the human cost of austerity either. This, to me, appears to be more like backlash against shock doctrine tactics. If that is the case, I'm all for whatever Greece government decides to do to correct the situation for their people first. This is one reason I hate money and all the inhumanity it inspires.

[geek tragedy]

8. There's a lot of misfeasance on the part of a lot of different players

that caused Greece to be where it is today.

The Greek government is right to be standing up for its people. They're fighting against the austerity cultists in the EU, and against the mismanagement of previous Greek governments who put them in this predicament.

[2naSalit]

9. Agreed... on both points. n/t

[geek tragedy]

3. here comes the Grexit nt

[n2doc]

10. Musical accompaniment

&spfreload=10

[bvar22]

11. The IMF are Loan Sharks.

They "loan" money to governments "in need" collateralized by that country's natural resources and promises of austerity for the non-rich.


I'm pretty sure it was the IMF who had Gaddafi "removed" from Libya.
He had been blocking the IMF from the riches of North Africa for years,
and using Oil Money to help African countries in need.

” For all his dictatorial megalomania, Gaddafi is a committed pan-African - a fierce defender of African unity. Libya was not in debt to international bankers. It did not borrow cash from the International Monetary Fund for any "structural adjustment". It used oil money for social services - including the Great Man Made River project, and investment/aid to sub-Saharan countries. Its independent central bank was not manipulated by the Western financial system. All in all a very bad example for the developing world.”

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/MD27Ak01.html

[brooklynite]

12. I believe he'd also been killing his own people...

Might have had something to do with it.

[bvar22]

13. There was a long running (tribal) Civil War in Libya,

...not to mention the infiltration of Fundamentalist Islam into Libya.