gold price, page-11

Somebody's comments on the London Agreement.

"[The US, Canada, Britain, France, Greece, and other signatories at the London Debt Agreement of 1953 granted Chancellor Konrad Adenauer a 50pc haircut on all German debt, worth 70pc in relief with stretched maturities. There was a five-year moratorium on interest payments.
The express purpose was to give Germany enough oxygen to rebuild its economy, and to help hold the line against Soviet overreach. This sweeping debt forgiveness caused heartburn for the British - then in dire financial straits, themselves forced to go cap in hand to Washington for loans. The Greeks had to forgo some war reparations.
Yet statesmanship prevailed. The finance ministers of the day agreed to overlook the moral origins of that debt, and the moral hazard of “rewarding” a country that had so disturbed the European order."

"Why cannot Germany do for Greece what was done for it?"

A very good question indeed.

http://www.cadtm.org/The-Marshall-Plan-and-the-Debt

I know this is a bit out of the topic but it is something in which we all have an interest. To see the Greeks old and young and the rest of the world to have to suffer in variable degrees (we are also being affected as this generates uncertainty making people everywhere adverse to risk) in the name of righteousness, morality and stupidity - who really believes in the austerity fairy? - is really shocking.