31–40 of 54 posts
Considering the habitual non-reporting of income that has been present in the Greek economy, my first thought is this is just another way to buy and sell stuff while avoiding VAT taxes. Depressing, if true. Are there any signs that the Greeks are learning to pay taxes as a patriotic duty to enable the supportive government they have come to appreciate?
This is an interesting side effect of the capital controls. It reminds people once again that currency is really just a stand-in for goods and services produced in an economy. I particularly liked that generic barter (like time for time) was seen as problematic with this quote : "But many of those systems were plagued by inefficiencies. Time banks discovered that one unit of a doctor’s time was more valuable than a u…
The online barter systems seem to be de facto creating an alternate currency. IIRC, the one profiled in the article uses "points" that are the equivalent of Euros (scanning, I can't verify this atm, but I read more than one article before submitting this one, so maybe I read it elsewhere). So if you have 600 points in your online account, you have the equivalent of 600 Euros to work with. I think it isn't Greece's mo…
This kind of feels like an opportunity to use bitcoin or another digital currency, doesn't it?
All the disadvantages of the Euro - low inflation, no control over interest rates - with extreme volatility of demand thrown in?
Expectations are a huge deal when dealing with money as that's the only thing that gives it value; other people's expectations. So if your currency is one that everyone expects to fluctuate wildly over time they will behave differently than if they expect it to be very stable.
Considering the habitual non-reporting of income that has been present in the Greek economy, my first thought is this is just another way to buy and sell stuff while avoiding VAT taxes. Depressing, if true. Are there any signs that the Greeks are learning to pay taxes as a patriotic duty to enable the supportive government they have come to appreciate?
And which one would that be? This is kinda the problem. The Greek government is so rotten people don't pay tax to it if they they can get away with not paying.
Some governments make their citizens rich, while other ones make them poor. Greece's definitely belongs among the latter.
I'm sort of a socialist and my hypothesis is that society benefits from good governments being big and bad governments being small. Greece's government is horrible and should therefore be tiny.
This is an interesting side effect of the capital controls. It reminds people once again that currency is really just a stand-in for goods and services produced in an economy. I particularly liked that generic barter (like time for time) was seen as problematic with this quote : "But many of those systems were plagued by inefficiencies. Time banks discovered that one unit of a doctor’s time was more valuable than a u…
Greece's monetary policy, if we can call it that, isn't the only problem in Greece. The Greek labor market is over-regulated, favoring the older generation over the younger, and corruption in government is widespread. Greece's government debt overload, and subsequent default, are just symptoms of this state of affairs. It certainly doesn't help, though, that the Greek people are practically forced to use their govern…
This describes just about any Western capitalist democratic country.
So, when stocking my bunker, what should I put in there that will have high barter potential?
Otherwise clean water and Soylent.
So, when stocking my bunker, what should I put in there that will have high barter potential?
“Greeks are aware there are devastating consequences of being in a single currency, like capital controls,” Then they are aware of the wrong thing. Capital controls are not the issue. My guess is that without some form of control capitals would leave the country making things even worst. Of course they should get worst, capital control is BAD, but it serves a purpose. Bartering is working because people are trading e…
It's more complicated than this. The real issue is that Greeks don't control their own currency. When a country has its own currency, the balance of trade automatically adjusts with the FX ratio (well, kind of - e.g. Swiss and US currencies are overpriced, because people trust them). If Greeks had Drachma, its value would fall (relative to e.g. Euro), the imports would get more expensive for Greeks and thus decrease, the exports would get cheaper for the world and thus increase, and the balance of trade would return to zero. In EU, Germany and Greece share the same currency, but Germany more than it imports, while Greece is the other way. As a consequence, the German currency (Euro) is undervalued, while the Greek currency (again Euro) is overvalued. If
This kind of feels like an opportunity to use bitcoin or another digital currency, doesn't it?
All the disadvantages of the Euro - low inflation, no control over interest rates - with extreme volatility of demand thrown in?
Not to mention EUR deposits in screwed up countries have volatility that puts Bitcoin to shame: http://www.rt.com/business/cyprus-crisis-bailout-deposit-631...
The sad thing is that this is basically unavoidable. The Greek bureaucracy is so corrupt it's outside the reach of the central government. Greek politicians couldn't change the system if they tried, which they won't, since they too are corrupt.
The orderly countries that are Greece's creditors have limited understanding of the Greek government's thorough corruption, or at least that was once true; now I think they are just kicking the can down the road until the next election. Some day we will have to write off Greece's debt. The Greek government will never pay back, unless they can do so on the back of the poor and those without political influence, which is of course what they're trying to do right now.