Comment Re:bit coin doesn't solve the strategic issue. (Score 0) 359
Of course they're screwed. And for every Euro the Greeks owe, there's a banker in the rest of the EU that lend it to them, knowing full well that they could never pay it off, and that their government would bail them out when it would turn sour. And that's exactly what happened in 2010-2012. German Landesbanken were up in their necks in Greek debt and would topple en-masse if Greece would default. They were assuming that the German government would stand by Greece. Landesbanken are interesting banks. They are 'cooperative', meaning that they are largely controlled by German politicians. These would get into serious trouble if those banks would topple, so the German state decided that Greece could not default until the bad debt was removed from the Landesbanken and was completely socialized over the population. And then they added the rhetoric that every eurocent would be paid back to appease the populace.
Many people actually argued at the time that both Italy and Greece were not in any shape to join the Euro, but were overruled by the Germans that needed as large a Euro-zone as France desired, in order to 'pay' for their right of unification. And that's where the trouble started. Not with the Greek lies, but with the German desire to placate France.
Yes, the Greeks lied and cheated. The Germans did something worse. Rather than letting their banks take the hit, they let their population pay for it, and blame it on foreigners.