Too many long words. am off to Zante in September, can someone tell me if I should get euros now, wait until after Sunday's referendum or book somewhere else entirely as I'll be without a hotel, scavaging for food with the rabid dogs from the hills.
whereabouts in Zante?, just come back from there for the 2nd year running - love the place
Kalamaki. Family have been loads of times. I've been a couple of times before and like it. quiet little resort with some decent restaurants and a few decent bars. No clubs etc but laganas is only a 5-10 minute taxi ride if that's your thing.
that's where we stayed last year, Caretta Beach with about 25 of us (inc 8 kids), superb hotel
this year we stayed in Tsilivi, loved it
Caretta is the water park hotel isn't it? Think they've pissed off a load of the small bars and restaurant owners by building more rooms and doing all inclusive deals. Ideal for families but the money is staying in one place so affecting other businesses.
That's the place yep, wouldn't stay there if I didn't have kids and a huge group of us, but they absolutely loved it and I'd recommend it to anyone with kids, couldn't fault a single thing about the whole place.
"Zakynthos" in Greek, an Ionian Island. Difficult to say what will happen till September. Will depend on the communist Greek government. Simply watch the news, changes are happening on hourly basis....
Greece should return back to the Drachma and I understand that will be a very challening prospect but it is certainly much better than Greece being bailed out again then hear Greece's situation on the news again within the next 5 months but in a much worse state than it currently is now.
One of Greece's main income is tourism and the Drachma will be cheap as anything for us Brits who want to go on holiday, so Greece's tourism would increase which means more money in the Greek's pockets!
What I thought was interesting to hear that Germany, France, Spain and Italy contributed over 100 billion Euro's to issue a bailout loan to Greece and I hear Greece wants an extra 21bn more!
The EURO is crumbling badly and I am so thankful we kept the pound because our Economy would have been in a much worse state. I am going on holiday around Italy August and I will certainly take advantage of the EURO crumbling as the exchange rate between the pound and Euro is getting wider.
Too many long words. am off to Zante in September, can someone tell me if I should get euros now, wait until after Sunday's referendum or book somewhere else entirely as I'll be without a hotel, scavaging for food with the rabid dogs from the hills.
They didn't vote to leave the Euro, just voted to reject a new bailout plan from the EU. New terms can still be agreed in the future keeping them in, just seems very unlikely.
They didn't vote to leave the Euro, just voted to reject a new bailout plan from the EU. New terms can still be agreed in the future keeping them in, just seems very unlikely.
The powers that be made it very clear what a no vote would mean to Greece's Euro membership. If they climb down the Euro and the EU itself will have zero credibility.
A great victory for democracy. Let us hope it inspires more people in Britain to vote against the undemocratic EU in our referendum. 'Ever greater union' is about consolidating the power of the European elites and making themselves less and less accountable. The European project is a dangerous failure and could be about to create another failed state on the shores of the Mediterranean.
A pyrrhic victory for the Greeks, at some point the cash stops - and that day gets ever closer.
Bottom line is that our Hellenic friends trousered hundreds of billions in loans - that money went somewhere, it did not turn to dust.
Their dog and pony show got into the EU purely for geo-political reasons not economic ones - and now the EU and Greece will pay a price.
The Greeks cannot blame anyone else for the mess they created, the county stinks of corruption and mass tax avoidance and that is their problem to resolve.
Personally, I love it that the Greeks have told the Banks, politicians and curreny speculators where thy can stick their final deadlines. Now they can all sit down and negotiate a financial deal without asking the Greeks to bend over and take a free one up the ass without vaseline, or the IMF/Banks/Merkel can continue to demand that the section of Greece least able to take it suffer pointless austerity, at which point the Greeks will walk away, Greece will be bankrupt, and all the Banks and countries who lent them money can write the loans off, and will have to find another country to bully. And Angela Merkel should remember that when Germany was fucked after world war 2, most European countries wrote off huge debts that Germany owed for destroying whole countries and shooting their populations. A bit of remembrance would go a long way here.
They didn't vote to leave the Euro, just voted to reject a new bailout plan from the EU. New terms can still be agreed in the future keeping them in, just seems very unlikely.
The powers that be made it very clear what a no vote would mean to Greece's Euro membership. If they climb down the Euro and the EU itself will have zero credibility.
The powers that be made it clear that they wanted the Greek people to toe the austerity line.
The Greek government have established a clear mandate to go back to the poker table without blinking.
Of course the ECB and Merkel / Hollande can stop advancing lines of credit but that means risking: 1) write off on a quarter of a trillion of debt
2) contagion to the rest of the Eurozone 3) Greece becoming a sattelite of Moscow or whoever else helps it through the next five years
The major eurozone economies, politicians and technocrats are trying to play out a sober negotiation with someone who has nothing to lose! What must come out of this is the basis of a high denomination Eurobond debt instrument backed by further integration. The Greek numbers mean that Grexit is a minor event but the paradox is that the game has exposed shortcomings in the architecture which need to be shored up... basically what happens if a state cannot continue.
So far they have kicked the can down the road...perhaps formal intervention is another solution, i.e., unlimited support from the ECB comes at a price of loss of sovereignty? Not saying this is favourable but how else will rich solvent economies convince their voters to support countries on the edge of bailing out ?
What I find ironic is that somehow people complain about Greece (and others) joining for geo-political reasons. Let us be under no illusion that the €uro is indeed a geo-political project and that is why Obama is lobbying to keep Greece onside.
PS I have no time for failing economies nor tax avoidance and these need to be addressed. In this case nobody wanted Greece to fall over when the whole Eurozone was at risk 4/5 years back but now it's supposedly Ok for the Greek people to pay the price?
Austerity doesn't work - never will, never has. Only economic illiterates on the far right preach it and Greece is the only place where it being practiced. We find out later today what Cameron and Osborne meant by their version. It might be sensible welfare reform or demands that the working poor pay for mistakes of the past?
I remember a routine from Michael McIntyre, in which he jokes about having a draw with all sorts of crap like a 1990s toaster instructions, batteries, and Drachma in it. If that draw does exist he's laughing, having those Drachma still. Could come in handy ;-)
Comments
Think they've pissed off a load of the small bars and restaurant owners by building more rooms and doing all inclusive deals. Ideal for families but the money is staying in one place so affecting other businesses.
We were all inc and the food was amazing
One of Greece's main income is tourism and the Drachma will be cheap as anything for us Brits who want to go on holiday, so Greece's tourism would increase which means more money in the Greek's pockets!
What I thought was interesting to hear that Germany, France, Spain and Italy contributed over 100 billion Euro's to issue a bailout loan to Greece and I hear Greece wants an extra 21bn more!
The EURO is crumbling badly and I am so thankful we kept the pound because our Economy would have been in a much worse state. I am going on holiday around Italy August and I will certainly take advantage of the EURO crumbling as the exchange rate between the pound and Euro is getting wider.
Gumbo will be here soon
And I must say he did a wonderful job of polishing my shoes.
'Ever greater union' is about consolidating the power of the European elites and making themselves less and less accountable. The European project is a dangerous failure and could be about to create another failed state on the shores of the Mediterranean.
Bottom line is that our Hellenic friends trousered hundreds of billions in loans - that money went somewhere, it did not turn to dust.
Their dog and pony show got into the EU purely for geo-political reasons not economic ones - and now the EU and Greece will pay a price.
The Greeks cannot blame anyone else for the mess they created, the county stinks of corruption and mass tax avoidance and that is their problem to resolve.
And Angela Merkel should remember that when Germany was fucked after world war 2, most European countries wrote off huge debts that Germany owed for destroying whole countries and shooting their populations. A bit of remembrance would go a long way here.
The Greek government have established a clear mandate to go back to the poker table without blinking.
Of course the ECB and Merkel / Hollande can stop advancing lines of credit but that means risking:
1) write off on a quarter of a trillion of debt
2) contagion to the rest of the Eurozone
3) Greece becoming a sattelite of Moscow or whoever else helps it through the next five years
The major eurozone economies, politicians and technocrats are trying to play out a sober negotiation with someone who has nothing to lose! What must come out of this is the basis of a high denomination Eurobond debt instrument backed by further integration. The Greek numbers mean that Grexit is a minor event but the paradox is that the game has exposed shortcomings in the architecture which need to be shored up... basically what happens if a state cannot continue.
So far they have kicked the can down the road...perhaps formal intervention is another solution, i.e., unlimited support from the ECB comes at a price of loss of sovereignty? Not saying this is favourable but how else will rich solvent economies convince their voters to support countries on the edge of bailing out ?
What I find ironic is that somehow people complain about Greece (and others) joining for geo-political reasons. Let us be under no illusion that the €uro is indeed a geo-political project and that is why Obama is lobbying to keep Greece onside.
PS I have no time for failing economies nor tax avoidance and these need to be addressed. In this case nobody wanted Greece to fall over when the whole Eurozone was at risk 4/5 years back but now it's supposedly Ok for the Greek people to pay the price?
Austerity doesn't work - never will, never has. Only economic illiterates on the far right preach it and Greece is the only place where it being practiced. We find out later today what Cameron and Osborne meant by their version. It might be sensible welfare reform or demands that the working poor pay for mistakes of the past?