07:52 – Barbara slept at her parents’ house Wednesday night and then went into work yesterday after visiting her mom at the hospital. She left work early to go back over to the hospital to visit and then have dinner with her dad. Her mom is doing better. She may or may not be released today. Barbara slept over at her parents’ house again last night. She’ll take her dad over to the hospital this morning and then head in to work. Colin and I have been scrounging meals as best we can. In the evenings, we’ve been re-watching series one and two of Heartland.
Two weeks left until the final deadline for Illustrated Guide to Home Forensic Science Experiments, and it looks like we’ll make it with time to spare. That’s good, because we definitely need to spend some time this weekend rebuilding our stock of chemistry kits.
13:12 – It’s looking increasingly possible that the breakup of the eurozone won’t result from the Greek government (such as it isn’t…) defaulting, but instead from a run on Greek banks. Greeks are now lining up outside banks to withdraw the entire amounts in their accounts. Ordinary Greeks perceive, rightly, that their money is much safer under their mattresses than it is in a Greek bank. One day soon, Greece and the world will learn with no notice that Greece is no longer in the euro, but has converted back to the drachma or whatever they choose to call their new local currency. When that happens, Greece will institute capital controls even harsher than those now in effect, to prevent euros from fleeing Greece. (Smuggling literally suitcases full of euro notes is now common; a lot of that is stopped at the borders, but I suspect most of it gets through.)
When the banks open that Morning After, Greeks will find that all of their euro deposits are now are now drachma-denominated, no doubt at an exchange rate of 1:1. Of course, despite the fact that the euro will soon itself be in free-fall, one drachma won’t actually be worth anything near one euro. When Greece adopted the euro a decade ago, the drachma:euro exchange rate was, IIRC, something like 350:1. And Greece was at that time in a lot better financial shape than it is now. My guess is that the drachma:euro exchange rate will soon be at something like 1,000:1, if not 10,000:1. And then we’ll see the real inflation taking hold, just as it did in Weimar Germany. People will have to haul a wheelbarrow full of overstamped drachma-euros up to the counter to buy a cup of coffee.
But for now, Greek banks are paying off euro depositors in euros, of which they are embarrassingly short and getting shorter. At this point, there isn’t technically a run on the Greek banks, because they’ve been able, so far, to meet depositor demands. But with Greek depositors withdrawing euros at a net of something like 5 billion a week and increasing fast, that’s likely to change very soon. Remember, neither Greek banks nor the Greek government can issue euros. They print them, yes, but only as authorized by the ECB, which isn’t authorizing them to print any more. In the absence of authorization, any euros that Greece prints will legally be counterfeits. Not that I’d expect that to prevent them from printing those euros. Desperate people take desperate actions.
So ordinary Greeks now have two priorities. First, get their euros out of Greek banks. Second, get those euros out of Greece. And who can blame them?
Colin and I have been scrounging meals as best we can
Somehow that just paints a picture of you on your hands and knees fighting with Colin over the scraps left over in his food bowl.
Another day or two and we’ll see whether Colin is actually a predator at the core. Chipmunks, watch out!
For that matter, another day or two and we’ll see whether RBT is actually a predator at the core.
You can live for weeks on Cola.
True, but after those couple weeks your teeth look like you’re a West Virginian or a meth-head. (Some category overlap may be noticed.)
I would say the first priority is getting out of Greece entirely. When the bottom falls out many of them will be fighting their dogs for food.
I don’t think our host and Colin will starve. Before it becomes critical I suspect some well meaning souls will throw some chunks of meat over the fence for the poor starving beast. They will also give some food to Colin.
Alas, I understand that many Greek dogs have already been killed and eaten. Seriously.
Yeah, the cats killed them and ate them. And good riddance, too.
It really isn’t funny. People are starving in Greece, and dying for lack of basic medical attention and drugs. Bartering for food has become extremely common. Suicides have increased dramatically, and this in a culture where suicide was formerly very rare.
I have a couple of Greek correspondents, and they tell me that things there are immensely worse than the MSM is portraying. Things are barely tenable in the countryside. The cities have become hellholes. Everyone who can get out is getting out. I expect the top to blow off any time now.
Greek dog
Greek not-dog
Not-Greek dog
Isn’t that usually the case, though, except when the MSM is portraying things as much worse than they are? In this case, I imagine the big finance houses, the European governments, the US government, and probably others really, really don’t want a bank run, a government default, or public panic. (Panic outside the Greek borders, that is; I suspect they’ve given up on Greece and the Greeks and don’t care what happens to them so long as the contagion doesn’t spread.) The MSM is cooperating with the desires of the big players. I doubt any requests even need to be made to the media. Members of the MSM view themselves as part of the elite, the ruling class, and they share the worldview and goals of the professional politicians, the behind-the-scenes money players, and all the rest of the class.
Note that the above rant is based on no topical knowledge whatsoever. It’s general experience and a lot of cheap cynicism. But you know the problem with today’s world, as regards cynics? The world seems bound and determined to make the cheap cynics right more often than not.
Call me a cheap cynic, too, but I can, without too much effort, see what is happening in Greece right now spreading to the rest of the southern tier of European countries soon enough. And to some of the northern tier as well. Not sure about the UK, though, or Scandinavia. And RBT is probably correct that while things in North America and the former British Commonwealth of Nations may get pretty dreary and miserable, it will not be on the scale of what happens elsewhere. We hope, anyway.