Greek debt, question

[OldBawley]

Greek debt – question.

This joke was send to me by an Old Zeeland friend.

It is a nice day in a small Greek village.
Times are bad, everyone has debts, and all live on credit.
On this day, Piet, a Dutch tourist drives through the village, stops in front of a small hotel.
He tells the owner he wants to have a look at the rooms, maybe rent one, and puts 100 € on the desk as a caution.
Hotel owner gives him a pair of keys.
With the visitor upstairs, hotel owner grabs 100 €, runs to his neighbour butcher and pays his debs.
Butcher takes 100 €, runs down the street and pays the farmer.
Farmer takes money and pays bill with milk cooling.
This guy takes money, goes to pub and pays his liqueur bill.
Bar owner moves the money to a prostitute sitting at the bar, with whom he had debts.
Prostitute runs to hotel to pay her 100 € bill.
The owner puts the money on the counter.
Piet comes down, says he dos not like the rooms, takes his money and disappears.

Nobody produced something, nobody has earned something, all debts are paid, all Greeks happy.

I always thought money represented labour because that is the way a earned mine, did I do something wrong?

 

[PLEIAS]

Well, here is a real-life example. Goldman Sachs (the big Wall Streetfirm) drove food prices up for all humanity because the last 10 years or so has been selling food futures (things like wheat, corn, etc.) by only putting down 5% of the value of the contract when it was buying that from the farmer but collecting 100% of the value when selling that contract through the commodity exchanges. The real profit came from the interest earned on the rest 95% of the money, thus the incentive to keep buying more futures and drive prices up.
Oh and in your joke you forgot the taxes and comissions

 

[Davy_S]

I seem to remember the joke being the one to solve the Irish problem, posted on the forums a while ago!

 

[grumpygit]

Now who's taking the p*** !

From todays Telegraph

There are more Porsche Cayennes registered in Greece than taxpayers declaring an income of 50,000 euros (£43,800) or more, according to research by Professor Herakles Polemarchakis, former head of the Greek prime minister’s economic department.

Sums up a lot of the Greek problems. PRICELESS.............................................

_____________________________________________________________________-

 

[nathanlee]

From todays Telegraph

There are more Porsche Cayennes registered in Greece than taxpayers...

Sums up a lot of the Greek problems.

I hardly think you can blame their debt problems on incredibly poor taste in cars.

 

[binch]

Loans

Some years ago we had an engine repair done by Vassily and Victor of Kondokali.
The bill came to more than I had with me (days before ETMs) and the brothers asked why I did not pay. I replied that I had to have it sent from England.
"Oh" said Victor, "you haven't got the money? Then I'll lend it to you."
Everybody happy.

 

[rigman]

Greek debt – question.

This joke was send to me by an Old Zeeland friend.

It is a nice day in a small Greek village.
Times are bad, everyone has debts, and all live on credit.
On this day, Piet, a Dutch tourist drives through the village, stops in front of a small hotel.
He tells the owner he wants to have a look at the rooms, maybe rent one, and puts 100 € on the desk as a caution.
Hotel owner gives him a pair of keys.
With the visitor upstairs, hotel owner grabs 100 €, runs to his neighbour butcher and pays his debs.
Butcher takes 100 €, runs down the street and pays the farmer.
Farmer takes money and pays bill with milk cooling.
This guy takes money, goes to pub and pays his liqueur bill.
Bar owner moves the money to a prostitute sitting at the bar, with whom he had debts.
Prostitute runs to hotel to pay her 100 € bill.
The owner puts the money on the counter.
Piet comes down, says he dos not like the rooms, takes his money and disappears.

Nobody produced something, nobody has earned something, all debts are paid, all Greeks happy.

I always thought money represented labour because that is the way a earned mine, did I do something wrong?

Yes looks good........but.....the innkeeper is still owed 100 euros by the hooker...someone always loses.....just wait and see when this EU pack of cards collapses. there will be losers..big time.

 

[westernman]

Yes looks good........but.....the innkeeper is still owed 100 euros by the hooker...someone always loses.....just wait and see when this EU pack of cards collapses. there will be losers..big time.

No - the hooker paid the innkeeper.

 

[ccscott49]

In a country the size of Greece and only 50,000 people admit to earning over 90k euros a year?? Yeah and pull the other one, corruption has seen the end of Greece and the experiment to make a problem that only greater control over the sovereign states by the european parliament (Germany and France) could alleviate, I feel for the regular tax paying Greek people, they just dont deserve this. The tax fiddlers? well they got what was coming, however they wont suffer, they've stashed the money out of greece.

 

[CharlesSwallow]

In a country the size of Greece and only 50,000 people admit to earning over 90k euros a year?? Yeah and pull the other one, corruption has seen the end of Greece and the experiment to make a problem that only greater control over the sovereign states by the european parliament (Germany and France) could alleviate, I feel for the regular tax paying Greek people, they just dont deserve this. The tax fiddlers? well they got what was coming, however they wont suffer, they've stashed the money out of greece.

This time tomorrow, I'll be there! The view I got from most Greeks last month was that it is the EU's problem not theirs and the rest of us should bail them out in all circumstances "just as they would if the circumstances were reversed". Ho! Ho! - with what?

Chuck 'em out, I say. They never properly qualified for membership in the first place.

Chas

Are you still in Corfu? I'll buy you a beer if so.

 

[ccscott49]

This time tomorrow, I'll be there! The view I got from most Greeks last month was that it is the EU's problem not theirs and the rest of us should bail them out in all circumstances "just as they would if the circumstances were reversed". Ho! Ho! - with what?

Chuck 'em out, I say. They never properly qualified for membership in the first place.

Chas

Are you still in Corfu? I'll buy you a beer if so.

Unfortunately working offshore Holland! But I'll catch you another time.

 

[rigman]

No - the hooker paid the innkeeper.

Yes that's true but the innkeeper is still out of pocket 100 euros.........someone always loses

 

[affinite]

No - With the E100 from the hooker, the Innkeeper paid the butcher off

 

[rigman]

No - With the E100 from the hooker, the Innkeeper paid the butcher off

Hmmmm.....you are correct....I give up

 

[quimby]

Hmmmm.....you are correct....I give up

Thats the right answer! (I give up)

 

[JonJon]

Look guys - none of these people were in debt they just hadnt been paid yet. They had already provided goods and services that were required by the community. They had not been paid for doin didly squat, which is what causes the national problem - when Cletus got his five star trailer in the US for doin absolutely FA for anybody thru his mortgage with Fanny & Johnny Craddock (or whoever it was ) he hadnt provided any service at all. His mortgage was then parcelled up by people who should know better and sold on to numpties in Europe (Fred & co)etc etc....

 

[Boo2]

I always thought money represented labour because that is the way a earned mine, did I do something wrong?

It's a nice story but you can pay for labour with borrowed or stolen as well as with earned money.

Boo2

 

[VO5]

Yes looks good........but.....the innkeeper is still owed 100 euros by the hooker...someone always loses.....just wait and see when this EU pack of cards collapses. there will be losers..big time.

I think within two months Greece will leave the Euro and replace it with the Drachma. It will be possible to buy the Drachma but not short it.

 

[westernman]

I think within two months Greece will leave the Euro and replace it with the Drachma. It will be possible to buy the Drachma but not short it.

I very much doubt it.

They will do everything possible to hang on to the Euro. If they replace it with the Drachma, it will wipe out the value of savings and real estate in Greece which will be terribly unpopular - more so than the current wages cuts and tax rises. Leaving the Euro would push back Greece living standards at least 25 years if not more. And they know it.

France and Germany will do everything possible to keep the Euro together, in their interest (not for the good of Greece), and to stop further speculation damaging Italy, then Spain ,then France in a domino effect, they will keep Greece in the Euro. After all, Greece represents just 2% of GDB of the Eurozone. So France and Germany can easily afford the bail out. No so long ago West Germany bailed out East Germany converting East Marks to West Marks at one to one - when the real exchange rate had been 18 to 1. That only caused a relatively minor hiccup - and East Germany cost considerably more than Greece would cost.

Eventually there will be some quantitative easing from the ECB. But they will need to be pushed somewhat harder before that happens.

 

[Boo2]

It's a nice story but you can pay for labour with borrowed or stolen as well as with earned money.

And the reason it works is because the total debt is zero. If the hotelier had written a promissary note for €100 that could have worked just as well as using the visitors' bank note.

Boo2