[Retric]

Even if every Euro of Greece's debt was gone tomorrow the country would still need more money every month than it gets in taxes. That's a long way from Austerity.

There unbalanced budget is 100% Greece's fault and has absolutely nothing to do with the EU. Long term the government has three options, collect more taxes, pay fewer benefits, fail. It's obvious which one Greece wants.

PS: Actually paying down their debt is another issue and would require Greece to maintain a surplus. Though, if they had that surplus they could just default and probably be better off.

[calibraxis]

Is it then the US's fault, for supporting the Greek dictatorship which incurred a large part of the debt? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_military_junta_of_1967%E2...)

Or is it Germany's fault, because Europe wrote off most of their debt in the 1953's (despite being LITERALLY Nazis...), yet they want to savage a populace for illegitimate odious debt, as well as "payments to Greece" which actually went to French and German banks? (http://www.euronews.com/2015/04/17/chomsky-says-us-is-world-...)

[Retric]

Outstanding Greek debt is irrelevant. They could default tomorrow and get rid of it all.

There problem is they need to borrow more money tomorrow, because their budget is not balanced even if you ignore the debt. And if they default the money truck keeping their country afloat stops showing up.

[atmosx]

Do you have any numbers to back up your claim? Please supply links w/ numbers if possible.

[aggronn]

http://www.wsj.com/articles/greece-expects-primary-budget-su... http://finance.yahoo.com/news/greece-says-eu-imf-lenders-095...

Greece hasn't had a balanced budget in decades, and creditors don't believe that 2015 will be any different. If they can manage to actually not run a deficit in 2015, that would be a great boon for them.

[taki1]

Somehow never was true with Iceland. They never repaid and they are just fine. Actually better than fine. I still remember all this fear-mongering coming from mainstream (i.e. the Economist) that the world will come to an end for Iceland if they don't repay. Nothing happened. They are in much better position than Greece. But they said no to EU demands. They said no to IMF demands. They showed big finger to bankers. And that's the lesson for Greece. They should quit Euro (Merkel will never allow because others would follow suit) and debase currency. Do exactly as Iceland did.

[pash]

Iceland's situation was nothing like Greece's. Iceland's government defied international pressure to nationalize the debts of its three big, private banks. The banks defaulted, but there was no sovereign default.

[taki1]

The creditors from UK and Netherlands were really pissed off and still are. So mainstream is rewriting the history now?