# Nobody worried about Greece/Portugal/Spain and a Euro-zone meltdown? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 29, 2010, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nobody-worried-about-greece-portugal-spain-and-a-euro-zone-meltdown/537701 "2010-04-29T01:55:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 4\ **Page:** 5
**Author:** ![Dick\_Dastardly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c4cdca/32.png) [@Dick\_Dastardly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dick_Dastardly)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nobody-worried-about-greece-portugal-spain-and-a-euro-zone-meltdown/537701/81 "2010-05-19T00:16:01Z")
> [@wmfellows](#): > > Well for Greece that is an open question: > [See this FT article](http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c02cd5f0-5f7a-11df-a670-00144feab49a.html): > This is not a genuinely Developed Europe political system. Greece is a 3rd World country that the EU let in from some misplaced classical nostalgia. Turkey is more Euopean in political culture than Greece nowadays. (well not really, actually they’re perhaps more or less the same, but the Greeks have less excuses) > > Both the Iberians have tried to get ahead of the curve, and the Spanish at least spent their money on real things with long term value - infrastructure, housing etc. that can rebound. > > The Greeks pissed it all away on inflated salaries and age 50 retirement. but you see people on this board claiming it was “The Banks” and “The IMF” that are at fault. I wouldn’t say the banks or the top echelons of Greek society are entirely at fault here but they’re unquestionably part of the problem and should bear the costs of cleaning the mess up based on their ability to pay. What Greece really needs is to sort its tax system out, had they done that a while ago they wouldn’t be in the mess they’re in now : [http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/05/greek\_myth\_profligacy.html](http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2010/05/greek_myth_profligacy.html) ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [May 19, 2010, 10:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nobody-worried-about-greece-portugal-spain-and-a-euro-zone-meltdown/537701/82 "2010-05-19T10:04:18Z")
> [@Dick\_Dastardly](#): > > Germany really needs more regulation. [Ask and you shall receive.](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/10124807.stm) Sadly it’s not banking-related, may not be effective and IMO contains a faint whiff of desperation about it but still, it’s something. ---
**Author:** ![Koxinga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/4af34b/32.png) [@Koxinga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Koxinga)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nobody-worried-about-greece-portugal-spain-and-a-euro-zone-meltdown/537701/83 "2010-05-25T00:19:47Z")
[One false move in Europe could set off global chain reaction](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/23/AR2010052304170.html): > [@](#): > > If the trouble starts – and it remains an “if” – the trigger may well be obscure to the concerns of most Americans: a missed budget projection by the Spanish government, the failure of Greece to hit a deficit-reduction target, a drop in Ireland’s economic output. > > But the knife-edge psychology currently governing global markets has put the future of the U.S. economic recovery in the hands of politicians in an assortment of European capitals. If one or more fail to make the expected progress on cutting budgets, restructuring economies or boosting growth, it could drain confidence in a broad and unsettling way. Credit markets worldwide could lock up and throw the global economy back into recession. > > For the average American, that seemingly distant sequence of events could translate into another hit on the 401(k) plan, a lost factory shift if exports to Europe decline and another shock to the banking system that might make it harder to borrow. Nothing really new, but notable that mainstream American media is finally getting around to giving their readers “Debt Crisis for Dummies.” ---
**Author:** ![Dick\_Dastardly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c4cdca/32.png) [@Dick\_Dastardly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dick_Dastardly)\ **Post date:** [May 25, 2010, 1:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nobody-worried-about-greece-portugal-spain-and-a-euro-zone-meltdown/537701/84 "2010-05-25T01:46:41Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > [Ask and you shall receive.](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/10124807.stm) Sadly it’s not banking-related, may not be effective and IMO contains a faint whiff of desperation about it but still, it’s something. That’s more just panicking at speculators ganging up on the German financial system than new regulation. What the Germans really need is new and effective government regulation and oversight of their financial markets like the recently-passed Finanzmarktstabilisierungsergänzungsgesetz bill. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/nobody-worried-about-greece-portugal-spain-and-a-euro-zone-meltdown/537701.md?page=4)