Greece has a number of economic problems and their financial future is uncertain. Unemployment is getting to be almost as high as it was for us in the Great Depression. Their debt to GDP ratio is 140%. Greece is sort of in a bad spot because they are not self-sufficient right now. They need EU nations to keep up their level of spending activity. Countries like France and Germany are getting tired of financing and bailing out Greek entitlements and are demanding austerity cuts to the budget. And that's leading to the mess. They are in a jam because they can't really borrow anymore. Their credit is in the sewer because of the debt level. So they are being backed into a corner by Germany and some are even talking about pushing Greece out of the Euro.
In the US it is a bit more complex because we are so big, plus our dealings with Japan, China, and our own monetary central bank. So we have a bit more control. When you include actual real debt, we are about 70% of debt-to-GDP. The Fed can also do numerous things to control debt and inflation. So we are not at Greece....yet. We are looking at maybe another 15-20 years before we are really in a lot of trouble unless economic growth and prosperity returns. If the economy doesnt pick up or gets worse by 2030....it might start getting ugly. At that point, we may not have enough money to fund social security and medicare and we might have no other option but to start cutting benefits. But we are not there yet.
The best thing for the country is if the economy starts growing again. Not this 1.5% crap. Real growth would be 4% or more with 250,000+ jobs created a month. If we get moving like that again, most of our fiscal problems will vanish.
= new reply since forum marked as read
