[baguasquirrel]

It just means that instead of having the train quickly derail, they're going to stretch it out like it were a Hollywood movie. Seriously. No one believes that debt is going to be repaid. The politicos are just praying that the train doesn't hit the ground on their watch. If you read the text of this, it just "says" they're going to extend all the terms.

But we all know the truth. Shit is going to happen. If for no reason other than that the Greek government is going to stop working because it can't fund itself.

[Edit: What diff does it make if they're going to practically indefinitely extend the terms? And at those rates? That's like hoping that inflation will make the debt go away. Except Greece is in the Eurozone so that's not quite going to happen.]

[jeffreymcmanus]

Wrong. The way it appears now, the debt is going to be repaid over a longer period of time. Your confusion about this indicates that writers are not doing a good job explaining this to people.

[baguasquirrel]

Even if it does get repaid over a longer period, this more or less means those bonds are shot as an investment. Moreover, this means that no one is going to lend the Greek gov't any more money. I didn't see any terms in the agreement where they said they'd be lending the Greeks more money. That means the government is going to stop working. Or Greece will exit the Eurozone. The Greek gov't could of course cut all the way back, but that means a depression, which also means the money won't be paid back.

[jeffreymcmanus]

That remains to be seen; they aren't going to access the global credit market for at least few years anyway because they have too much debt to begin with.

But the existing bonds still have value and they'll still be held as investments. It's not like the whole country has collapsed and the value of its debt is worthless. A haircut is just that, a downward adjustment in the value of the debt.

It's inane to think that Greece will exit the Euro zone because of this. The Euro zone is the only thing keeping them going at this point.

[tsotha]

You mean they're promising to repay it over a longer period of time, the same way they originally promised to pay it over a shorter period of time. The odds that they'll actually pay the debt over any time frame are very small and everyone knows it.

[brown9-2]

I think that the point that baguasquirrel is making is that if Greece cannot pay their debts now, how confident should anyone be that they'll be able to pay the debts years down the road? It would appear that the larger day of reckoning is being postponed.

[pkteison]

Paying me, but not on the originally agreed upon schedule, is still a default. What's wrong about calling it one?

[vladd]

It's not written anywhere that they won't pay upon the agreed schedule.

Debtors have "an option" to gain additional guarantees at an additional cost. For debtors that don't enter into such additional contracts, Greece made all the payments up to date.

[jeffreymcmanus]

For the same reason that clipping my fingernail isn't the same as severing my finger.

[anonymoushn]

Negative. Did you somehow miss the 20% haircut?

[jeffreymcmanus]

There is no such proposal to "practically indefinitely extend the terms". Do you actually know anything about this or are you making all this up?

[baguasquirrel]

"30 years, and accept a modest coupon of 4.5%", I rest my case. This is comical.

[jeffreymcmanus]

You think that 30 years is "practically indefinitely"? What are you, 12 years old?