Legalize private counterfeiting? That's what the central banks do. (Legalized in 1913 federal reserve act in the US, extending the banking cartel to America.) They don't like competition.
They would solve the overpopulation problem though ;^)
At present only the banksters get the power to "be rich" from counterfeiting.
No, the solution is to remove that power from a small cartel that produces the only legal tender, not to give that power to everyone.

That's what happens when paper money does not represent anything with intrinsic value.

Your kidding, right?
Why bother with banking at all. Why not just legalize private counterfeiting?

Give every man a printing press and we'll all be rich.
Where do I vote for that?!

Exactly, what the quoted paragraph states, that money and the debt does not exist, no one has lost nor gained unless the bonds that represent a theoretical asset are sold. It's just as easy to erase it as it was to create it.

This is Atlas Shrugged played out in real life.

Tough Love folks... That's the only medicine.

Here's a funny development, all the gas stations are owned by the government, the government took all their cash reserves away to pay gov salaries and pensions with, so now the gov-gas has no money to import gas with, and all the gas stations are closed (it's not like they have an entrepreneur to step up and figure it out). So now they are asking Putin to buy gas from Gasprov and supply it directly to the Greek government. Of course he will! And he will want something in return.... And so it starts, the likelihood of a future third war in Europe.

Thanks for the detailed explanation.

They don't even want to grow, unless everyone gets a government pension.

Having a job is an entitlement there, I don't even think many are educated above high school.

But you increase the money supply and devalues against other currencies.

When the U.S. fed did it, they destroyed currency as it was repaid, so the devaluation was temporary. We are now in a strong dollar, because there was no loss, and we bailed out our economy, not our government.

The Greeks have no ability to even service a zero-interest debt without fixing their stupid economy.

Yes, she is advocating to just fire up the printing presses, devalue the Euro, and essentially rob from the savings of every 'working' European.

This comes down to the BS of an able bodied Vet standing on the street corner looking for a handout. My wife always wants to stop... I Am a Vet, and I always notice their uniform doesn't fit the age group (olive, Europe forest BDU, desert, digi-camo), never has the unit patches (mine all do), and anyone can get that stuff in surplus.

Put down the bottle or crack pipe and get a job like everyone else.

That isn't really how it works. Governments can issue revenue bonds, infrastructure bonds, or some type of unsecured debt. Keep in mind this isn't the Greek taxpayer, they Hoover up the freebies and think everyone else should give them charity. This is the rest of Europe, and mostly Germans. The Greeks don't have much revenue, so they haven't been able to issue much of those (like a cash til payday loan), they can't afford the double/triple digit interest on unsecured debt that everyone knew would be defaulted on, so they were issuing infrastructure bonds. They don't build anything either there, so they pledged old stuff. Don't pay your bills and the bank takes the collateral... Shocker...

So the EU steps in and basically floats German and French debt at lower interest rates to borrow to Greece. Now the German and French are paying the bill, and the Greeks were supposed to cut spending and raise taxes (much lower than the Germans or French pay) to pay the bills for Germany/France at their lower 'affordable' interest rates of about 1% or so. The Greeks were at like 20%... So risk was baked in and bond holders were just going to take their stuff like the Rent A Center ghetto deadbeats that they are. Truthfully, the banks taking over Greek-run 'businesses', firing the lazy staff, and hiring some non-Greeks to actually work and then sell the business would be the best thing to ever happen to them.

So now the Germans and French are holding the bag, the Greeks did none of they changes they committed to as loan conditions, they have no money again, and defaulted on the first payment and now need a loan to pay their loan interest with.
Let's compare, the U.S. Is a debtor country, we used to be a creditor, we have a $60 Trillion+ annual GDP. We owe around 28% of that (it doubled under O-Bummer).

Greece owes 170% of its GDP! And something like 700%+ the governments annual take-in, and they keep spending.

This stuff they committed to isn't feeding dog food to Grandma, it's selling government enterprises off to raise money to pay their debts off with and get rid of future civil service retirement costs, sell off buildings they don't need to run the government, raise retirements to something like everyone else in Europe, and pay debts first like anyone with a mortgage does.

It's called tough love be, and you stop enabling the junkie. Iceland was there, took about 5 years to turn it around. Half of Greece works for the government..l that's the first problem and like any public employee union-dominated election here, they only elect leaders that will keep giving away more free stuff.

I think everyone knows they need relief, but they can't have a penny of it without changing first.

I don't disagree on paying one's debts and although I have no first hand knowledge of the Greek government's largess, I have seen it happen often enough to think it is true. It is irrational (and unconscionable) to feed a junkie's habit and expect the junkie to suddenly go cold turkey and reform. Yes, the junkie is the primary one at fault, but looters prey on the weak and encourage their bad habits.
However, Goldman Sachs (et al) knew very well the "quality" of the loans they were making, and then sold many of them to investors claiming they were low risk sovereign debt. The banks have been doing this for decades and coming back to taxpayers to be bailed out when the loans that they knew were bad defaulted. They are still doing it and the EU people are the ones paying the price in this case.

"When a central bank prints money and buys a government bond, it is the same thing as cancelling that bond (so long as the central bank does not sell the bond back to the public)."
Creating or canceling debt on paper only...no assets changed hands.

How is there something wrong with the banks giving a loan to a country that asks for its? How does a bank review the sovereign's "credit rating"? And those 'banksters' are not some fat cat somewhere, those are pension funds, 401k's and IRA's and mutual funds owned by people that are 'real people' that WORKED for that money instead of hanging out on a sidewalk holding a broom and taking pictures with tourists or something (like a lot of Greek jobs seem to be). Defaulting on those bonds that were sold and purchased by institutional investors were done in good faith.

Let's take the Athens Airport for example... Greece was already way over extended years ago when they begged Goldman Sach's for a loan from one of its international debt/value funds. They ultimately did so, but wanted collateral to secure the loan, the Greeks offered the title to the Athens Airport. They defaulted on the loan, so Goldman Sachs now owns the airport and all the landing fees it collects, etc.

Greece has done that repeatedly, rather than just sell assets to pay its debts like any responsible person would do that doesn't have a job (or the desire to have one), instead, they chose to 'borrow' against their assets used as collateral when their 'good name' was about as clear as mud in terms of transparency and credit-worthiness.

That's the reality of being a subprime borrower with making up BS about their income and borrowing more money to live beyond their means with. Sooner or later, the piper comes to call, and they ABSOLUTELY SHOULD NOT get a reprieve on this. Nothing has changed since this started, they were 'rioting' over their civil servants having to retire at 55 instead of 52... hell... how many Brits or Germans retire at 52? Or 55 for that matter? Let's not even talk about Americans...

"Austerity" it seems like if your Greek means being forced to not have a government job and the 'show up at 10 & leave at 3 with a 2 hour lunch hour & retire at 52' goes away.

Their cries of 'unfair' really just fall on deaf ears. They kept voting for cake, and voting for people that would give them cake. Now they have to pay off the credit cards.

Actually, they have had at least 2 bailouts.. they got a reprieve a few months ago as well.

Its the banksters who control the decision making. If Greece defaults, banksters lose. If not, then taxpayers and non-bank investors (the ones the banksters conned into investing) in the EU lose.

It would be like Japan (in miniature) regarding natural resources, but even more severe. At least Japan has had adequate water supply and the size advantage. Wonder if materials for concrete are adequate. Technology would have to be used to make up the difference. Solar and tidal energy generation (and thorium eventually.) An expensive proposition, but in a great location for trade. TANSTAAFL.

They're pretty beautiful, but also devoid of any raw materials - including trees. Not even any offshore oil. Great for the tourists, but even the inhabitants are only on the island during tourist season. I wouldn't want to try to make a living on any of them.

Correct. Greece DID cause the problem through their socialist spending habits - it's just that the EU thought it could reform Greece by offering it a place in the EU. I lived in Greece for two years and could have told anyone (and did at the time) that Greece's entry into the EU would be a terrible fiscal deal for the other EU members and the result of an EU desperate for members to promote it's image.

To blame this upon the EU for withholding liquidity is just ignorant. Remember, Greece already had one bail-out! They didn't reform their ways then and voted not to change their ways even if bailed out again! If I were the EU, I'd just write them off and admit that it was a huge mistake to admit them into the EU in the first place!

If Greece gets to inflate its debt away by creating money, so will the US. This may not thrill all the people whose pension plans directly or indirectly hold Treasury bills, bonds, and notes, and most do.

A rather ironic idea, considering the source of the myth of Atlantis: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoan_...

"Full reserve gold-standard banks" don't exist. And when they did, they had to charge depositors a fee rather than pay interest.

I believe most people in the market would be just fine doing business with fractional reserve banks, even if all their details were exposed. At worst, if the banks were uninsured and lacked the right to create money (if necessary) to pay off depositors, then deposits in badly run banks would trade at a discount.

Yes, the structure of Greece life supported by government must change to one that rewards production and punishes sloth.

The more negative the results in Greece, the more bitter pill the progressives and socialists must swallow.

Fiscal conservatives need to use this at the right time in the next election to bash the position the US has taken following this trend.

I hope people are laying out macroeconomic models with correlation between the US and Greece!

Intelligent fools. They abound.

Wave a wand. Run the presses.

THIS is the reason Socialism fails. They have no concept of money.