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[Loud Whispers]

You're a necrophile with a thing for cremated people?

Oh dear my statements have led you to believe the opposite of what I intended

And that is literally irony

And that is literally terrible

[MarcAFK]

Up Up Up the ziggurat lickity split.

[mainiac]

I invade you with news of the Americas!

Puerto Rico can't pay it's 72 billion in debts:
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/29/business/dealbook/puerto-ricos-governor-says-islands-debts-are-not-payable.html

For those who dont know, Puerto Rico is the most populace American overseas "territory" (so not a state).  It has self government like an American state but does not vote in federal elections.  It does pay federal taxes (though less then the mainland) and receive federal payments (again less then the mainland).  It is about as rich as Greece was before austerity tanked the greek economy and the per capita debt is about equal to greece.  It's name is hilariously ironic in a sad way.

Some things that wont happen in Puerto Rico:
-Social Security (Americanese for "Pensions") wont get cut
-Not one dollar will be lost in the bank accounts of the island residents
-The island wont be forced off the dollar
-Businesses and banks in Puerto Rico wont collapse

It is unlikely but possible that Federal Courts may end up blocking the Puerto Rican default and rule that this level of debt is in fact manageable.  While Greece is page 1 news everywhere and has been for a long time, Puerto Rico is like page 3 news and will only get less high profile.

The lesson of all of this is that it's not the situation in Athens that created the catastrophe in Greece.  It's the situation in Brussels that kept Greece from being quietly sorted out like Puerto Rico will be.

[Helgoland]

The situation in Brussels being 28 states squabbling, as opposed to the situation in Washington, where it's two parties squabbling in a firmly codified way. I knew you'd come around and see I'm correct, mainiac

[mainiac]

You got me.

[Loud Whispers]

And now Europol thread is becoming Americas thread

[Dutchling]

remove burger REMOVE BURGER august 24 best day of my life!

[mainiac]

The birthday of Rupert Grint?

[Guardian G.I.]

The birthday of Rupert Grint?

It's the day when British forces sacked Washington D.C. in 1814.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

[Helgoland]

So Greece will apparently not pay the IMF, and its chef Lagarde has already announced that there would be 'no grace period'.

[mainiac]

We thought it was impossible.  Europe proved us wrong.

[Loud Whispers]

Post source mang

[Sergarr]

austerity policies man

fuck keynes merkel knows better how to economy

[smjjames]

So, only option left for Greece is to default on debt?

[Helgoland]

Or make a last-second deal. I have a hunch that the institutions will be less inclined to be lenient this time around, however.

Post source mang

zeit.de live blog about the crisis. It's German, so I didn't link it.