Guilty as charged. I've Currency Wars [0] in my reading list.

[0] http://www.amazon.com/Currency-Wars-Making-Global-Crisis/dp/...

You wrote:

> Given that Greece is 'paying' for these imports with borrowed money, which is unlikely ever to be paid back, how is this setup benefitting?

> Well, the Euro collapsed for everybody, so all other Euro members had exactly the same benefit.

I don't know if you're trolling me or not. Maybe you should read a little bit about the context before engaging into similar discussions.

A few good starting points:

Macronomics: http://www.amazon.com/Macroeconomics-3rd-Edition-Paul-Krugma...

[2] http://www.amazon.com/Currency-Wars-Making-Global-Crisis-ebo...

Also read about public debts what they are and how they did evolve.

Finally, you're looking financial answers to a political problem. Strictly financially speaking, debt restructuring is the only sensible solution to Greece AND everyone else. What you're watching, is a live show of poor justifications from failed politicians (all over the EU).

At the beginning of civilization, the research budget for the invention of fire was zero, while the benefits of fire were incalculable. Compare this to the development costs of the next generation of Boeing aircraft relative to the small improvements in air travel. This dynamic has enormous implications for the presumed benefits of increases in government spending beyond some low base.

Over time and with increasing complexity, returns on investment in society begin to level off and turn negative. Once the easy irrigation projects are completed, society begins progressively larger projects covering longer conduits with progressively smaller amounts of water produced. Bureaucracies that started out as efficient organizers turn into inefficient obstacles to improvement more concerned with their own perpetuation than with service to society. Elites who manage the institutions of society slowly become more concerned with the their own share of a shrinking pie than with the welfare of society as a whole. The elite echelons of society go from leading to leeching. Elites behave like parasites on the host body of society and engage in what economists call "rent seeking," or the accumulation of wealth through nonproductive means--postmodern finance being one example.

Excerpt from: http://www.amazon.com/Currency-Wars-Making-Global-Crisis/dp/...

Who knows how it will play out. I read a fascinating book on the topic. The author is bullish on SDRs.

http://www.amazon.com/Currency-Wars-Making-Global-Crisis/dp/...

Correct, and all those currencies float. Guess in what direction? Down. Have a look at 'Currency Wars' and see how all country's drive down the value of their currency in order to export more easily. As they do, paying off debt becomes easier. However, for people that actually save money (or who are on fixed income like pensioners) it means their purchasing power becomes much smaller. Link to Currency Wars: http://www.amazon.com/Currency-Wars-Making-Global-Portfolio/...

Not correct, this is helping the debtors (like our government) while extremely hurting the savers, people on fixed income, people with a pension and low income. As most western-european countries import more than they export (especially energy and food, when their currency goes down, what they can afford to import goes down as well.

What we're seeing and why the $ and € don't fluctuate much (even though Europe is in such a mess) is both Europe and the US (and all the others) are devaluing their currency one after another. It's called Currency Wars: "Currency wars are one of the most destructive and feared outcomes in international economics. At best, they offer the sorry spectacle of countries' stealing growth from their trading partners. At worst, they degenerate into sequential bouts of inflation, recession, retaliation, and sometimes actual violence. Left unchecked, the next currency war could lead to a crisis worse than the panic of 2008. http://www.amazon.com/Currency-Wars-Making-Global-Portfolio/...

Here's a nice video explaining it using a comic from the '50's! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFxvy9XyUtg