the Euro is here to stay

In name only, I’m afraid
As a concept – as soon as one country drops out because the others can’t or won’t support it – it’s finished

Why?

I don’t beleive Greece will drop out anyway but even if it did I see no reason why It should be and no one has shown me a reason why it would be the end of the euro

I got the impression this is the problem Uncle Jezza

The domino effect. If Greece leaves the Euro, there will be a bolt for the exits by Portugal, Italy, Spain and Ireland as big banks go bust, interest rates on servicing sovereign debt go through the roof, and they subsequently default too.

Resulting in utter chaos as no-one would know the true level of any individual currencies?.

Not that I’m an expert, but yesterday William Hill were giving odds of a Greek default and leaving the Euro at 11-10. Have you ever known bookies lose? And that was before todays shennanigans

but even if it did I see no reason why It should be and no one has shown me a reason why it would be the end of the euro

The Euro has already failed

Take Spain, 33% less competitive against Germany since the introduction of the Euro
So what can it do about it? can’t devalue any more, all it can do is to cut wages and jobs
The Euro is stopping he Meds from taking action to strengthen their economies and it looks very much like the Euro [Germany & France] is coming to the end of their altruistic appetite.

if they do, the Euro as a concept [not a currency] is dead

Italy……gonna be ugly

From today’s FT:

How would Greece legally exit the eurozone?
This might require a good lawyer. Extensive as they are, the European Union treaties do not actually provide for a country leaving the eurozone. (Until now, it was taken for granted that the traffic would all be headed in only one direction).

The treaties do include a sort of emergency clause that allows the European commission, the EU’s executive arm, to make proposals to deal with extraordinary events that are a threat to the single currency. So it could probably use this as a basis to draft a Greek exit, if necessary. As with all EU matters, the process would not be immediate. The other 26 member states would have to unanimously approve, as well as the European Parliament.

Thanks to a clause in the Lisbon treaty, which came into force in 2009, Greece could take a more radical approach and opt to leave the EU altogether. (This clause was added at the behest of the UK, to prove to its eurosceptic voters that the bloc was not a straightjacket that could never be removed). In this case, Greece would require only majority approval from other member states.

But, on top of all the other acrimony, its departure would result in potentially fraught negotiations over its EU payments. Greece, for example, receives tens-of-billions of euros in development funds while its farmers harvest bumper crops of agricultural subsidies. The fate of these payments, which are programmed over several years, and other EU accounts could take some time to sort out. There would also be the question of whether a non-EU Greece would still want to maintain links to the single market, as Norway and Switzerland do.

What about the banks?

One of the gravest challenges of introducing a new Drachma would be preventing a run on Greece’s banks. As soon as customers sensed such a move was in the works, they would almost certainly attempt to drain their euro accounts and move them to safer ground, such as Germany. As the crisis has worsened, Greek banks have already experienced an outflow of deposits. Changing currencies would almost certainly force the government to impose emergency capital controls to prevent a full-fledged bank run.

What would happen to euro-denominated contracts?

This would be another headache of Olympic proportions. All domestic contracts – from property leases to employment contracts – would probably have to be amended to reflect the change from euros to the new currency. Far more contentious would be cross-border contracts. Companies selling goods to Greece would insist that they continue to be paid in euros while Greeks would probably try to pay in the new currency or at reduced rates. Much litigation would ensue.

If the euro is such a mess why is the pound still so weak against it.
Are we even worse than them?

because we have the ability to to take measures to manipulate the value of our currency to aid the economy – low interest rates etc.
no Euro country can do that, they have to suffer whatever rate the ecb sets for them along with any consequences

zippykona – Member

If the euro is such a mess why is the pound still so weak against it.
Are we even worse than them?

thats a point I have tried to make but been roundly ignored.

thats a point I have tried to make but been roundly ignored

in part because we have lower interest rate than the euro so it weakens the pound – why is that bad?

portugese girl at work was saying her dad wants to move all his savings to her bank account here

the run on the greek banks if they did leave would just be the start, next would be portugal, ireland, spain, italy?

im not sure it would be wise for greece to leave the euro and i think sarkomerkin knows this