Apparently Greeks are becoming real pros at accumulating great amounts of debt
without means of paying it off. As far as 2,500 years ago they got in dire straits
when they borrowed/ mortgaged lot more than they could prudently manage.
Borrowers were with whole families taken as slaves inside and even outside Greece.
When they finally had enough misery they turned to Solon one of seven wise men
of Greece and gave him a free hand to get them out of the mess.
He instituted a number of reforms. He inacted number of laws that stoped practice
of taking debtors into slavery upon default on loans/mortgages. Already enslaved
people were immidiately freed from slavery ( including their families) and what is
more important their debts were written off/forgiven.Slaves taken out of country
were returned to Greece as free men. Today, without writing off at least part of
the debt there is no hope that they will be able to service it.
With every restructuring their principal grows and interest rates become more
punitive.
Someone said once that debt is always paid off either by the borrower or the
lender/creditor. In this mess there is more than enough blame on both sides.
Lets hope that Noront is far more prudent than the Greeks are.
GLTA,
Fossil