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| Europe |
| Greece told to make more spending cuts |
| 2010-02-17 |
| Greece has been warned by European finance ministers that it must make further cuts to spending and public sector wages or face more sanctions. A joint statement from the 16 eurozone nations it said Greece needed to get its debt under control and calm "irrational" financial markets. Last week, the European Union vowed to help Greece if needed. But the idea of bailing out a euro nation has been badly received, prompting a harsher stance. Greece's woes have sent the value of the euro down to a nine-month low recently. Now the country has been told that further measures will be imposed if its debt reduction plans are not on target by 16 March. |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #4 After March 16, they are talking about stripping the Greek government of the ability to either tax or spend, with EU finance ministers taking over control of all finances. This actually happened in that other cradle of democracy, Springfield, Mass. a few years ago. The once proud city (home of basketball, the first US car company and Dr. Seuss)went broke because of out-of-control public spending and was put under a control board. The city council would still meet and vote on meaningless resolutions, but the control board called the shots on spending and taxes. The public employee unions went nuts, but end of day, it worked, and Springfield finally got out from under receivership. |
| Posted by: regular joe 2010-02-17 16:19 |
| #3 Read an interesting post somewhere that said the Greeks, and everyone else in the world gets to choose two of democracy, sovereignty or globalization. Which two do you want? |
| Posted by: Nimble Spemble 2010-02-17 13:36 |
| #2 That threat is interesting. After March 16, they are talking about stripping the Greek government of the ability to either tax or spend, with EU finance ministers taking over control of all finances. There is no way in hell a sovereign nation can tolerate that, and it will likely result in the Greek government just refusing to obey. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2010-02-17 13:11 |
| #1 What do we have to do to get someone to order more spending cuts here in the USA? |
| Posted by: AzCat 2010-02-17 01:53 |