If your typical prepper-novelist was writing the real life story of Greece, they probably would have had them raping in pillaging in the streets a year ago. Or certainly the first time someone went to an ATM machine and couldn't get their money out!
I knew some of the fallout from reading Ferfal's accounts of what happened in Argentina when they had a debt non-payment collapse. But still, this is a wrinkle, that while obvious when you think about it, hadn't really occurred to me.
ekathimerini.com, 20 July 2015 (hat tip: NC)
Capital controls imposed by the Greek government are taking a heavy toll on the country's businesses, a survey showed Monday, with nearly a quarter saying they are seeking to move their headquarters abroad.
Endeavour Greece, a non-profit group that supports entrepreneurs, found that 58 percent of the 300 companies it surveyed between July 13 and July 17 reported a "significant impact on their operations caused by the limitations imposed to cross-border transactions."
"Many of these companies cannot import raw material or have access to foreign services and infrastructure," the group said in a statement, adding that 23 percent "plan to transfer their headquarters abroad for security, cash flow and stability reasons."
Of course they have to get out of the country, at least to some extent, so that they can avoid the hard cash controls. Greece can't afford to have cash leave the country, and business can't survive without paying cash for imports. Greek business, with Greece being geographically much closer to so many neighbors than Argentina, can probably manage to operate at least some of their business as a parallel enterprise just over the border. Still tough, but at least you can keep some of the cash exchange outside of Greece.
On a grimmer note, one of the reasons the Germans started keeping the Jews from emigrating prior to WW2 was because they were taking too much money with them, and they were worried about a flight of capital. The Jews often knew very well that they should go, but the Germans set the price of exit too high for most to afford.
How long has this crap been going on with Greece? Five, seven years? It almost seems they are being kept alive but suffering as an example to everyone else to "not go Iceland" on the banks. Re: the Jews, there is a great example of how governments view your money. All of it to include assets. It is actually theirs, and you are just renting it.
ReplyDeleteGreece isn't a vacuum yet though as you mention. It still has money and resources coming in. It's still in the slow slide and still living on debt at it's core. What we are seeing is the ramifications of the creditors making it dance really and only because the creditors resources are getting thinner.
ReplyDeleteGreece is an edge and the overall collapse is coming into the center from the edges very slowly yet.
James: In general that is true. But it is concealed better in a representative democracy.
ReplyDeletePioneer: There is no money to pay back the loans - that is obvious. But what makes for the political dynamite, isn't so much Germany, but the fact that a number of Euro countries even poorer than Greece, are also owed a ton of money. They in particular aren't willing to forgive Greece.