blueblood

Because we have our wealth in this thing called a bank. You see people save their money in a bank and other people borrow the money and pay interest back on it to do various things with it. Also we invest our money in firms doing various projects. No money invested means no growth. Also we spend our money on things we want otherwise I am working for nothing.

There's been a wealth gap in north america for hundreds of years, yet nothing too major has happened.

Indeed, it takes a great deal of people with rocks in their heads to drink that increased govt spending kool-aid.

No no, you literally get to enjoy high interest rates because you will be rewarded more for saving money in the bank, by the bank paying out higher intererst to encourage people to save. Not to mention the falling prices of things because other people will have a harder time borrowing money to pay for said things.

Argentina happens to sit on some of the worlds best farmland and had a population willing to work for chump change. Greece sits on rock and has an entitled population.big difference. Tourism is a non factor to an economy like argentina. Oh and we have inflation north of 9 percent in argentina as well, there's a hangovre coming...

Property is a speculative asset. It can go up or down. The crappy thing about urban real estate is its hard to get any production out of it. Its like owning apple stock. If I owned multiple pieces of urban real estate, I would short now and get out of debt. If you are debt free, then you get to enjoy the high interest rates coming.

Except the uk still uses the pound sterling instead of the euro

It helps explain the ridiculous growth in Asia and Latin America. Getting solid returns too.

You make money on the fundamentals, why would gs be going long on greece and try shorting out the backdoor? They wouldn't make anything. It's going to be pretty hard finding investors in Greece when current bond holders have to take a 50% haircut.

Yes, gs is going to make sooo much money off of hedging it's losses....

Cite!

Argentina defaulted and the bankers ability wasn't compromised.

Except that rescue credit card has the terms of only for paying off debt and you only get the card if you slash and burn your gov't spending. Seems like a good deal to me, oh and we get to garnish your wages to boot.

You do have to realize that your "usury" has been what got western civilization out of the dark ages. The system when used responsibly creates a lot of wealth and advances society. It's when the system is treated like a money tree is where there is problems. I take out loans and pay them back with interest, and I'm not in debt, why can't other people? The Greek situation is like somebody renegotiating their credit cards. A credit card company will take a bit of a loss and will write off the debt if it gets a payment guaranteed rather than hope that it will receive a payment the traditional way. Remember, getting some money is better than none, that's why the bond holders were allowing to write off 50%.

As much as I don't like bailouts, the greeks should take this one. They don't have the same advantages argentina has, and the bailout at least has some restrictions. Make no mistake, the greeks are going to be wandering in the desert for quite some time.

Oh but it is comparable. In those days, the church was what was the authority on astronomy science much like climate scientists are the authority on climate science. Hell we have recently had a scientist shoot the "nothing is faster than the speed of light" theory full of holes by finding that some subatomic particles could possibly move faster than the speed of light. Science is always changing and that's a good thing.

And when Galileo came about 98% of people bought church doctrine as science. What's your point, things change.

Except it isn't about if it's changing or not. It's been changing for 4-5 billion years. The debate is whether human activity is a major contributing factor or not. Krikey!

I believe a more appropriate example would be Argentina. However, there is some side effects... My link

Yes they will, means more uncertainty and more people's retirements taking a hit. Greece has a choice, they can take their bath now or later....

How so, they use it the same as everyone else, why not a flat tax? Corporations employ people, how many people do you employ?

Why would they in times of uncertainty. We have an unpredictable situation in Washington that is resulting in all these burdensome regulations. It's increasing the cost of production, so business has to adjust to those realities. Then there is the uncertainty, those businesses are worried that if they sink their money into something and there is an economic shock, they will lose their money. At least in these days we know that the wealthy will be back doing normal economic activity. In 1700s France, it was aristocrats sitting on their wealth, they did nothing with it except blow it on consumption and actively tried to keep people poor.

What consequences? Incentive to get your lazy ass out of poverty? This isn't 1700s France no matter how much you want it to be. Rich people actually improve the lives of everyone by existing in the economy. In 1700s France they sat on their wealth. Big difference.

I prefer it to europe's. We smartened up when the bond vultures said the party was over,

Excellent point, when your a desired destination like Canada we get to pick and choose. Must be a pretty good continent we live on to have that kind of a demand for our way of life.