Doctor Glyndwr wrote:
This is an angle I hadn't really considered, I must admit. Cavey/AE/other "the banks should have been allowed to fail" folk-- do you have pensions? Would you still come down against bailouts if the lack of one wiped out half your pension saving at a stroke? Don't forget these investment vehicles are not protected by the government's guarantees for bank account deposits. The money would be gone.
Tragically, that's banks for you, isn't it? This is precisely what we've been talking about.
I truly hope I'm wrong, I really do - and that's a distinct possibility since, as stated, I know nothing about the world of finance (but did know enough to see this coming a mile off - hence I have no pension, money invested in 'real' things like bricks and mortar, and very few debts). But, I really don't see any alternative to total meltdown in terms of the Euro and EU banks. Greece IS insolvent. Any talk of their somehow being able to repay debts of this magnitude - ever - without any wealth creating activities that I can see, is just bollocks, just as it was with Iceland. They're kidding themselves and more to the point of course, Greece is merely the tip of a huge, ruinous iceberg. The EU and banks cannot bear to contemplate this, but they're going to have to at some point (soon). Idiotic, irresponsible lending is at the root of all of this and ordinary people are going to see pensions, savings the lot - wiped. Furthermore, I think that anyone who thinks they're getting a public sector final salary pension in 20 or 30 years is living in cloud cuckoo land IMO, as I've been saying for years.
The way I see it, at least if we'd bitten the bullet the first time, there was money in the pot to ameliorate the aftermath. Now that we've spunked however many of hundreds of billions, still with the likely end result, we will have the worst of all possible worlds. To me, it really is looking that bad - but I admit, I don't know what I'm talking about.
Ultimately, 'ordinary people' have to pick up the tab, just like they always do. It just hasn't dawned on most of them yet - especially in Germany and France.
Still, doubtless we'll get the same 'no-one could ever have seen this one coming' BS that we got last time.
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Beware of gavia articulata oculos...
Dr Lave wrote:
Of course, he's normally wrong but
interestingly wrong