My sympathies to the Greek people. Talk about stuck between a rock and a hard place. Do they want to be enslaved to Europe or Russia? Either one is a bend over.

I hope they are getting busy with developing local sources for the medicines, materials, food, etc that they will no longer have access to from other nations. And I hope they don't sell out to Russia so badly that their great grandkids are toiling on Siberian farms and mines to repay them.

There is no reason to expect the Drachmas they issue will not trade with other currencies, just as it did for decades before the Euro came along.

Just because they MAY reissue their old currency again, it doesn't mean they won't be able to trade with the rest of the world.

A drachma would be tradable -- but it would help immensely if it were actually worth something. This is not about the color palette on pieces of paper; it's about the fact Greece is broke. They have no gold and they have no productivity. What, exactly, would they be trading to other nations for the goods those nations send to Greece? If Greece has nothing why would those nations spend their own resources and labor for nothing in return?

The Drachmas may well be extraordinarily cheap, but they will be worth something. There is a big population and they do have a tax base as well as exports.

I am no expert in currency trading, but to suggest that any currency they print/coin/produce would be looked upon as utterly useless and valueless by the rest of the world is a serious stretch.

Greece is no Zimbabwe.

Ireland's, Portugal's, Spain's, not to mention all the disasters they have created in South American and Africa, or right here in the US.

All blame goes to them. The IMF/Word Bank destroy nations by forcing them into enormous debt, CUTTING ALL THEIR SOCIAL PROGRAMS and setting up countries so their buddies can 'buy' their natural assets at bargain basement prices.

Greece should have left the EU long ago. So should Ireland and Spain and all the others who have suffered under the oppressive, draconian, brutal 'austerity' policies imposed on them by these horribly cruel organizations.

And if Russia, or China, or anyone else offers them a better deal, that is for them to decide.

The EU is not happy with this new, Progressive Government and will do all in their power to try to destroy it so they can continue robbing Greece as they have been doing.

Paying pensions is the right thing to do. These greedy morons who have been running things, into the ground mostly for the working class, the elderly, poor etc over there need to be prosecuted and jailed, as Iceland did.

They are not caught between a rock and a hard place. They are suffering under the cruel and brutal invasion of their once sovereign nation by Global Thieves.

And they need to get out from under that.

with quotes from their source:

[hr][font color="blue"][center]You should never stop having childhood dreams.[/center][/font][hr]

Finally they have a government that actually cares about the country rather than the World Bank/Goldman Sachs installed 'caretakers' who were installed to oversee the theft of the country's sovereignty and assets.

I hope Greece is just the first to finally extricate themselves from the clutches of the Men Who Collapsed The World's Economies'. They were the first to be victimized by these Global Criminals airc.

Iceland did it right arresting and prosecuting the crooked Bankers and the crooked politicians who were responsible for the corruption that collapsed all these economies.

The EU would be better off without Greece, while Greece's economy would suffer during the exit.

In a relationship that has gotten to the point you want out, if the other person threatens to leave, is it really a threat?

The EU will survive, of course, but it's similar to the effect on us should Texas or some other state secede. It won't be painless for anyone.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]You should never stop having childhood dreams.[/center][/font][hr]

Frankly, the EU should never have admitted Greece, but it was politics that overrode economics and it has been bad for both Greece and the EU. The transition away will be an annoyance for the EU, but really painful for Greece.

They should have been more realistic about whether the economies were similar enough to withstand a single currency.

But if things get too painful for Greece, won't someone need to eventually bail them out, anyways? Russia? Yuck.
[hr][font color="blue"][center]Don't ever underestimate the long-term effects of a good night's sleep.[/center][/font][hr]

The EU has been shoveling money into Greece because it's in denial of its own bad judgment. The EU didn't want to admit Greece could not/would not make good on its debt. This was never about whether the EU thought Greece could repay but rather it was about them refusing to admit to themselves they petitioned to incorporate a nation with no means of supporting itself let alone contributing to the body politic.

But now that Greece is making absolutely no effort to develop an economy while demanding ever-larger sums of money and courting the militaristically expansionist dictatorship in Russia it's becoming clear that Greece is not a thing to be aided so much as a petulant delinquent to be contained.

and we'd rather have better relations with Greece than call them names like "a petulant delinquent to be contained".

As a result, yes, there economy has been severely damaged. Austerity doesn't work, but that's what's been demanded of them, and they've followed through in spades. There's an impressive amount of victim blaming going on.

"...Greece is making absolutely no effort to develop an economy while demanding ever-larger sums of money and courting the militaristically expansionist dictatorship in Russia..."

They will need constant loans.

You can point to the news items about it, surely.

criminal thieves, iow, the Big Banks who are the cause of the collapse of the world's economies, and then, taking advantage of the disasters they created to ROB them of their assets and sovereignty.

It's amazing to see ANY support for the very same Big Banks who collapsed OUR economy and then forced Congress to bail them out, here on DU.

I hope every country in Europe who suffered under the corruption, now indebted to the IMF/World Bank, follows Greek out of that corrupt organization.

Looks like it may happen also as Spain, Portugal, Ireland among others are seeing HUGE protests, and support for Greece spreading all over Europe now.

Good for Greece. I hope they then do what Iceland did and start arresting these criminals. We sure won't do it here.

Leaving the Euro is not the same as leaving the EU. One is a currency union. One is a political union.

Not by a long shot does every EU member use the Euro anyway. CZ still uses their Koruna, Hungary still uses the forint, Denmark and Sweden still use their own Krone/Krona, and Great Britain, of course, still uses sterling.

Sure Putin would love to have Greece as his own warm water Byelarus, but Greece is still in NATO.

Greece has no huge mineral wealth to offer, but it still has immense tourism and agriculture resources to bring in needed dollars, pounds and euros. They can't devalue the euro, but they can devalue a reborn drachma to their hearts' delight. Sure, it'll cause some ripples if they leave the euro, but they won't leave the EU or NATO unless it's for reasons they'll regret later on. Tsipiras doesn't appear to be a moron, so surely he is thinking about all this.

Greece retaining the euro, at least did in January.

Economic Collapse. Brussels has been brutal towards them, while creating a system there whereby not all EU nations are treated equally.

So it may be that while they do not want to leave the EU, the draconian, devastating policies imposed on them by Goldman Sachs operatives over there will eventually force them to make that decision for their own National Interests.

Being treated like second class citizens while the Global Banks continue to ravage these countries, is not going over well in many EU nations.

So they would certainly go along if Syriza changed its tune and decided to withdraw from the EU and/or the euro.

Independent Greeks is a right-wing conservative party, with nationalistic and eurosceptic elements.

http://metapolls.net/country-facts-2/greece/greek-political-parties/#.VR6f_ZPF84Q

Brussels for years now. They are standing up and acting like they too can make demands.

The bullying has been unbelievable with former governments just caving.

Bullies need to be confronted.

The EU doesn't want to lose all these countries, so there IS room for Greece and other nations to bargain with.

Imo, it is great to see some courage being displayed for a change. And to see the support Greece is getting from other EU countries finding themselves in similar situations.

handling the negotiations quite well. Kammenos seems like your typical right-winger who is anti-Semitic, anti-immigrant, pro-religion, conservative nationalist. The world has too many of those.