EU Bailouts

Emp_Fab

Did you know that Greece so far has been 'bailed out' to the tune of £203 Billion ?  I know the cost is spread amongst the EU nations, but, for added frothing at the mouth outrage, IF that amount came out of the pockets of every working man and woman in the UK, we would have coughed up just shy of SEVEN GRAND - EACH.

EACH !!

What it comes to when divided amongst all of the workers in the EU I don't know, as I don't have any figures for working populations of the EU as a whole.  This, bear in mind, is just Greece - not any of the others that have had bailouts - just Greece.

They should give us free holidays for life !

VimFuego

that's peanuts, the US fed has bailed out EU banks to the tune of at least 2 trillion dollars. Ponzi scheme economies like EU, the US, the UK are so far up the creek, they've forgotten there ever was a paddle

octatonic

They should at least stop smashing their bloody plates.

barry2tone

Did you know the UK received around 10.6 billion euros of ERF/ESF/Coehesion fund money 2007-2013?

Sporky

What's more shocking is that if all that had come out of the pocket of every Emp_Fab it'd have cost him a metric shitload more.

[Deleted User]

And they've stopped making hummous and taramasalata....

monquixote

From the discussion list it looks like EU Ballouts which is much more amusing.

Myranda

Can I get a bailout?

I'd cost a LOT less than a bank, and rather than a bank just staying a bank when I get a bailout I'd be doing all sorts of weird stuff. Me with a billion monies would be awesome!

monquixote

Only if you comply with my draconian austerity plan which prohibits the drunnying of wines. 

Sporky

Harsh but fair.

Fretwired

Emp_Fab said:

Did you know that Greece so far has been 'bailed out' to the tune of £203 Billion ?  I know the cost is spread amongst the EU nations, but, for added frothing at the mouth outrage, IF that amount came out of the pockets of every working man and woman in the UK, we would have coughed up just shy of SEVEN GRAND - EACH.

EACH !!

What it comes to when divided amongst all of the workers in the EU I don't know, as I don't have any figures for working populations of the EU as a whole.  This, bear in mind, is just Greece - not any of the others that have had bailouts - just Greece.

They should give us free holidays for life !

This is mostly paid by the people you don't like - the Germans. The UK's not really involved as we're not in the Euro. Calm down and have a nice glass of wine. The Greek's claim the Germans owe them £4 billion in stolen gold from WWII so I suggest they just get on with it. And if you're a Scot remember that Alex Salmond wants to sign Scotland up to this madness.

Sporky

If you divided this amount equally between all the past and present members of Europe it'd cost them nearly 23 billion each. I know The Final Countdown was pretty successful, but I think that might be asking too much of just one band.

mike_l

Myranda, Monquixote will bail you out if you don't druny wines, he says nothing of beer or spirits though.............

chillidoggy

The amounts bandied around are staggering. Where's all this bailout money coming from? I thought the Euro was a bad idea at the time, and I've not changed this opinion. No member state can devalue their currency, and hence we now see the result.

Emp_Fab

I preferred it when they were on the Drachma.  You could get shitfaced for 27p back then.  Once they went all Euro on our asses, they hiked the prices of everything to match the rest of Europe.  I remember watching the exchange rate and getting excited when it hit 250 DRX to the quid.

Now it's 250 quid a pint.

Naturally, my grasp on numbers is a little....  well.... 'loose'.

ICBM

Fretwired said:

And if you're a Scot remember that Alex Salmond wants to sign Scotland up to this madness.

No, he's changed his mind on that now he realises it would be ludicrous - but more importantly unpopular - a policy. He now wants the Scottish pound to be in a currency union with the British pound. I'm not sure how that would make Scotland independent from the UK, but there you go...

ICBM

VimFuego said:

that's peanuts, the US fed has bailed out EU banks to the tune of at least 2 trillion dollars. Ponzi scheme economies like EU, the US, the UK are so far up the creek, they've forgotten there ever was a paddle

It's funny, when small-time operators like Bernie Madoff get caught running a Ponzi scheme, they're crooks and go to jail. But when national governments do it, it's the international financial system and everyone plays along as if the 'wealth' is real.

"...the principle--which is quite true within itself--that in the big lie there is always a certain force of credibility; because the broad masses of a nation are always more easily corrupted in the deeper strata of their emotional nature than consciously or voluntarily; and thus in the primitive simplicity of their minds they more readily fall victims to the big lie than the small lie, since they themselves often tell small lies in little matters but would be ashamed to resort to large-scale falsehoods. It would never come into their heads to fabricate colossal untruths, and they would not believe that others could have the impudence to distort the truth so infamously. Even though the facts which prove this to be so may be brought clearly to their minds, they will still doubt and waver and will continue to think that there may be some other explanation. For the grossly impudent lie always leaves traces behind it, even after it has been nailed down, a fact which is known to all expert liars in this world and to all who conspire together in the art of lying." - Adolf Hitler, 'Mein Kampf'.

chillidoggy

Emp_Fab said:

I preferred it when they were on the Drachma.  You could get shitfaced for 27p back then.  Once they went all Euro on our asses, they hiked the prices of everything to match the rest of Europe.  I remember watching the exchange rate and getting excited when it hit 250 DRX to the quid.

Now it's 250 quid a pint.

Naturally, my grasp on numbers is a little....  well.... 'loose'

Indeed, the cost of pissing-it up is top of the agenda for any potential holidaymaker, not simply those considering Greece as a destination, but I think £250 a pint is a bit wide of the mark, Emp!

VimFuego

heh, I've never read mein kampf, and am shockingly poorly educated on subjects like propaganda and so on, but every word of that is true.

 

Mind you, when Ponzi schemes the crooks generally get their comeuppance, I suspect when this gig old house of cards comes crashing down around our heads there'll be few accountings.

ICBM

VimFuego said:

heh, I've never read mein kampf, and am shockingly poorly educated on subjects like propaganda and so on, but every word of that is true.

I've never read it properly either - I just know some of the important bits and where to find them online . That one is more usually attributed to Goebbels, who did actually say - and this itself is the proof of it! - that if you repeat a (small) lie often enough, people believe it.

I've always been almost scared to read Mein Kampf. It's easy to dismiss Hitler as a lunatic, but he was far from it - he was rational and clever, and he was worryingly perceptive about a lot of things... which of course is why he succeeded. Just because he was driven by hatred and megalomania doesn't mean he wasn't right (logically rather than morally) about many things - hence why he was so dangerous.

GuitarMonkey

chillidoggy said:

 I think £250 a pint is a bit wide of the mark, Emp!

Clearly not been to Oslo then.