Eurozone Recession Looming, Tempering Optimism Over Greek Bailout Deal

Earlier on HuffPost:

Comments

[Michigan Joe]

03:42 PM on 02/22/2012

If you tell the same story over and over again, it gains it's own new life. That is what is going on all around the world. Saying to the public that every thing is bad over and over again becomes the driving force that causes that action.

[gerald4]

03:00 PM on 02/22/2012

Rather than printing money, since Greece is not monetarily sovereign, the Greeks printed and sold paper sovereign Greek Treasury bonds denominated in Euros, and then spent the money from the bonds on government activities and free benefits for the citizens.

People were stupid to buy any of those bonds. But a lots of people and governments were stupid, and now they will not buy any more of those Greek Treasury bonds.

[RomeoMD25]

12:01 PM on 02/22/2012

Iceland's rage road to recovery; Greece ground to dust

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PR3OmpDv03M&feature=g-u-u&context=G2050e8eFUAAAAAAAAAA

[Michael GE]

05:20 PM on 02/22/2012

Sorry to say, but that is comparing apples to oranges. Let me explain why:
a) that case isn't yet resolved. As far as I understand, neither the Dutch nor the British have written off the money Iceland owes them.
b) Iceland is comparatively small. Just imagine a country the size of Italy (almost 2tn public debt) did the same. It would wipe out the financial sectors, also those which realistically cannot be blamed of any moral wrongdoing. For example, pension funds would be wiped out; thus pensioners would be left out in the cold. If you apply the Categorical Imperative then you cannot conclude that Iceland's action should become "universal law".
c) Iceland is neither a member of the EU nor of the EZ. Being a member of both, like Greece, does not only entail benefits but also responsibilities. Greece does have an obligation - just like the other 16 - to work towards not endangering the common currency. They cannot just say: "Was nice while we got the benefits but now, bye bye."
d) a fair amount of blame that is attributed these days to the Troika is actually of the Greek's political elite own making. For example, they were ask to find 3.3bn in structural spending cuts. But it was them deciding that they cut 1bn in medical spending and only one to two hundred millions in cuts in their oversized military expenditures.

[pjohnh]

09:28 AM on 02/22/2012

Hasn't the EuroZone economic growth and economic activity shrunk and slowed over the past 6-8 months? Isn't that a recession? Whats sad is that these are becoming buzz words thrown around by political types and economists. There have been dozens of riots, protests and other real human activities also woven into all this that aren't getting very much attention - these are the people who are directly suffering from economic policy set by their "leaders." Our concern is how our large govt interest in selling debt to European countries is going to be effected if those foreign leaders can no longer spend their people's money on out "wares."

This, again, all stems from the complete evaporation of trillions of "dollars" caused by the Governments compliance with the financial sectors actions.

[Hanover Fiste]

08:48 AM on 02/22/2012

Someone start the board clock so we can countdown to the first "it is all President Obama's fault" comment.

[Peter007]

09:05 AM on 02/22/2012

That will come right after the comments saying its all Bush's fault.

[Hanover Fiste]

09:51 AM on 02/22/2012

Consult world map.

[Erikhuffpost]

01:37 PM on 02/22/2012

Don't forget the catchphrase it's all those socialist European countries, or that socialism works fine until you run out of someone else's money