Ancient Greek money could cover the Olympic debt

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news...M&refer=europe

In article ,
(John Stone) wrote:

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news...M&refer=europe


Part of the article says "Indeed, the 54-year-old relic hunter suggests
there's more than enough loot on display in the museum to pay off the
more than 7 billion euros ($8.6 billion) modern Greece has splurged to
host the 2004 Olympics, lumbering the government with a deficit in
excess of 4 percent of its gross domestic product and beyond European
Union limits. "

What's the impact of being "beyond European Union limits?"

Ï "Scot Kamins" Ýãñáøå óôï ìÞíõìá
...
In article ,
(John Stone) wrote:


http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news...M&refer=europe


Part of the article says "Indeed, the 54-year-old relic hunter suggests
there's more than enough loot on display in the museum to pay off the
more than 7 billion euros ($8.6 billion) modern Greece has splurged to
host the 2004 Olympics, lumbering the government with a deficit in
excess of 4 percent of its gross domestic product and beyond European
Union limits. "

What's the impact of being "beyond European Union limits?"


Nothing as you could probably see from what happened to Germany and a couple
of
other countries in the last year ;-)

--
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http://www.romclub.4t.com/rabin.html

E' mai possibile, oh porco di un cane, che le avventure in codesto reame
debban risolversi tutte con grandi puttane!
F.d.A

On 23 Aug 2004 07:51:12 -0700, John Stone wrote:

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news...M&refer=europe

This is encouraging

We don't have any insurance policy against damage or theft,'' says
Evgenidou,

On Mon, 23 Aug 2004 11:36:34 -0700, Scot Kamins
wrote:

In article ,
(John Stone) wrote:

http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news...M&refer=europe


Part of the article says "Indeed, the 54-year-old relic hunter suggests
there's more than enough loot on display in the museum to pay off the
more than 7 billion euros ($8.6 billion) modern Greece has splurged to
host the 2004 Olympics, lumbering the government with a deficit in
excess of 4 percent of its gross domestic product and beyond European
Union limits. "

What's the impact of being "beyond European Union limits?"

The EU will threaten you with austerity measures. I believe as an EU
member you are supposed to keep you debt at 60% of GDP and your deficits
at 3% or less. Otherwise they could force across the board cuts on a
violator.

"Scot Kamins" wrote in message
...
In article ,
(John Stone) wrote:


http://quote.bloomberg.com/apps/news...M&refer=europe


Part of the article says "Indeed, the 54-year-old relic hunter suggests
there's more than enough loot on display in the museum to pay off the
more than 7 billion euros ($8.6 billion) modern Greece has splurged to
host the 2004 Olympics, lumbering the government with a deficit in
excess of 4 percent of its gross domestic product and beyond European
Union limits. "

What's the impact of being "beyond European Union limits?"

A good stiff spanking, with four years of finger wagging and "tsk tsk"ing.
K.

In article ,
"Kyle Mutcher" wrote:

What's the impact of being "beyond European Union limits?"

A good stiff spanking, with four years of finger wagging and "tsk tsk"ing.

So I take it from this and all the other responses so far from the usual
suspects :-D that the rule-enforcement committee (if such there be) is
a paper tiger?

Scot Kamins wrote:

So I take it from this and all the other responses so far from the usual
suspects :-D that the rule-enforcement committee (if such there be) is
a paper tiger?

Don't want to go through the whole Stability Pact discussion again but,
well, yes. Before the euro was created five years ago, the member states
agreed on that pact - mostly since the German government insisted on
having such an instrument. As far as I remember, Portugal was the first
country that went beyond the 3% limit, in 2001, and then faced sanctions
inthe sense of budget controls. The second "offender" was, ironically
(or not), Germany.

This limit is apparently the most famous of the stability pact criteria;
it means that the government's net borrowing may not exceed three
percent of the gross domestic product. Other criteria are the national
debt (may not exceed 60% of the GDP), the inflation rate (may not be
more than 1.5% above the rates of the three member states with the
lowest inflation) and the nominal interest rates.

Of course the pact criteria allow for some flexibility since there may
be exceptional economic conditions where such rigid limits are
counterproductive. Even the president of the European Commission once
called the pact stupid - and I guess the US government, for example,
would laugh at such a 3% limit ... But the question is, should it, in a
currency union, be up to each member state government to decide whether
the rules can be ignored or not? In my opinion only an EU body should
make that decision.

When DE and then FR "broke" the rules, the European Commission decided
to impose sanctions. (The theoretical maximum fine in the case of
repeated violations, I think, is 0.5% of the GNP.) But in November 2003
the finance ministers in the European Council (Ecofin) voted against
such sanctions.

Then the Commission took the Council to court. About a month ago, in
mid-July, the Court of Justice of the European Union (Curia) decided
that on one hand the Council does have the right to decide that in some
specific case the rules should not be enforced. But apparently (I am not
a lawyer) the Council's decision to simply postpone the pact procedure,
based on what the French and German governments promised, was not OK.

Well, the Curia decision is just a few weeks old, and AFAIK no "legal"
conclusions have been made. The likely consequence is that the stability
pact will be handled in a more flexible way. By the way, currently
(first half of 2004) Germany's deficit is at 4% as well ...

Christian

"Christian Feldhaus" wrote in message
...
Scot Kamins wrote:

So I take it from this and all the other responses so far from the usual
suspects :-D that the rule-enforcement committee (if such there be) is
a paper tiger?

Don't want to go through the whole Stability Pact discussion again but,
well, yes. Before the euro was created five years ago, the member states
agreed on that pact - mostly since the German government insisted on
having such an instrument. As far as I remember, Portugal was the first
country that went beyond the 3% limit, in 2001, and then faced sanctions
inthe sense of budget controls. The second "offender" was, ironically
(or not), Germany.

Well, the Curia decision is just a few weeks old, and AFAIK no "legal"
conclusions have been made. The likely consequence is that the stability
pact will be handled in a more flexible way. By the way, currently
(first half of 2004) Germany's deficit is at 4% as well ...

Christian

Which example shows that decisions such as deficit maximums, tend to be made
in the best of times, when everything is rosy. A few years ago, the USA had
a budget surplus after many years of deficits. However the terrorist
attacks of 9/11 and the justified(Afghan) and unjustified(Iraq) have plowed
us into a record deficit, which coupled now with huge oil prices are driving
interest rates up and all cost associated anything related to oil much
higher. Who could have known this would happen back in 2000?

Dave

emails to (myuserid).at.lycos.com

Tir nam Beann, nan Gleann, s'nan Gaisgeach - Saor Alba A-Nis!



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