As I was trying to send my reply to Fletch, Justme sent his own reply. If you have no time reading a long reply, read the one by Justme. I totally agree.
Why would Germany and France want Greece to fail if they are the ones using their budget to patch up each market crisis? Is it about keeping the status quo and denying help from elsewhere as you have suggested?
First of all, we have to define fail. Then clarify what we mean when we say Germany or France and even Greece.
Failure to all three, means the inability of Greece to pay back the money owed. In turn for each country that means several different things.
For Greece it will mean that since we don't have cash and nobody will trust us with more money, almost automatically, we will have to release our own currency. Unfortunately the stock market of the worlds will be the ones to set the exchange rate, so in the end we will only be able to use it for domestic purposes. Unfortunately we don't produce enough oil to cover our needs for either vehicles or heating purposes. And the same goes for medicines. Also food will become a bit hard to find, but if there is careful planning, nobody will die of hunger. And of course we are not talking about the 10% of people that got filthy rich the last 30 years, that own big business and media. We are talking about the majority. And to top all this, our savings will be lost in a wink. The banks will collapse since they hold a great deal of the bonds.
For Germany, it will mean that since their banks were wise enough to turn in the bulk of the bonds with the aid of the German government, stalling for two years when there were many solutions to stabilize the entire EU , during these two years, the cost of rescuing Greece will fall on the shoulders of the poor tax payers, in the form of the German contribution in the EU supporting fund.
For France it is a bit harder because apart from the contribution in the EU supporting fund, their banks have a great deal of Greece's bonds. That might ruin the credibility of France to borrow money, and what this means is clear, no need to elaborate.
But then you have to think that Greece has a relatively small debt, compared with Italy. 1,9 trillion will surely be hard to find, if Italy falls victim like Greece. EU fund is not ready to cover such amounts.
Now let's see what we mean when we say Greece, France and Germany. In simple words, all countries have two faces. The face of their wealthy people which usually account for less than the 10% of the population, but have more than 80% of the wealth and then they are the rest that are called to pay for the damages when the system fails. The system is easy enough to understand but complex enough to be able to get rid of. Banks are part of the system, and for least the past 50 years people thought of them as the system itself, just because it was easier for greedy people to own a bank and do the business directly. And at the same time having a newspaper, a TV channel and radio stations were helpful in order to influence people's mind, casting new ideas, ethics and in fact control minds. The final frontier is always a fabricated hatred among nations. The second world war had its origins at the terrible war compensations that were asked from Germany. The Germans are proud people, and the inflation and unemployment was so great after the WWI, that Hitler seemed a good idea. Giving jobs to everybody and giving back to the Germans their lost self esteem and promising old glories in a post colonization world. Unfortunately many other factors, like corruption of power, mental issues, the general state in Europe with at least 5 countries under dictatorships - fascism, and the stupidity of the countries that were the keepers of peace to understand that you can't have peace in such a bleak environment when proud people suffer or made to suffer.
But I think I am getting a bit obscure here, so a bit of a parenthesis. Money is nothing but a trading tool, it has no value on its own. Pieces of paper, or numbers on our screen. In order to have any kind of value, at least one person have to believe in the value. The seller. So I am willing to buy from you oil, but you don't believe that my money is any good. You won't sell. But what makes money some currencies better accepted than others? A belief. A belief of stability. US dollar used to be the strongest currency in the world. Even today that its reign is somehow lost to Euro, oil is still linked to dollar. The sense of stability comes from the fact that US is a mighty strong country, but it has become apparent the last 3 years, that the continuous issuing of new dollar bills is not backed up by anything valuable or productive. Now it is becoming clear to many people, that money (and gold for that matter) should never have become values on their own. But it is too late. People in many parts of the world die of hunger, not because there is not enough food, but because they can't afford it! They prefer to stock the crops in warehouses or destroy it, in order to keep the price up, instead of giving it away! Also something else: with the new technology only the 20% of the working force in the planet is needed in order to do all available work. So does this mean that the rest will have to accept their fate, and die of hunger, since they won't be having any money? It is very strange that simple ethics like that (only the men that work deserve to be fed) are unburied by the greedy people in order to justify the way things are going. They have turn food in stocks and they play with them in the stock market, while people die of hunger.
Maybe it is time a new set of ethics, beliefs and values are set. I find that communism failed because it was a forced system, a dictator ship in all but name, while capitalism keeps going because it feeds from the flesh of the poor dreaming that they will make it some day. But surely there is a way between, and new technologies should have made this passing easier, but alas...
So, they don't want Greece to fail, and if there is no other option they will try to do it on heir own terms. It is clear that you get nothing out of a dead donkey.You have to keep it working with less and less. But since the fraudulent tower of believing in money as a value on its own collapses rapidly, the greedy people will try to exchange the money with other values that have deeper roots in the history of man, like land. Greedy people may be eponymous to anonymous, but it doesn't make a difference. Also it doesn't make much difference if what I call greed comes from a peculiar mental obsession, a game if you like to gather more and more when you don't need so much, or it actually comes from a desire to gain control over people for purposes too far fetched to even consider or mention.
Now I guess you have heard of the new "deals"Greece has signed with EU and IMF (and here I mean the politicians that rule Greece in a not so democratic way). The average Greek lost most of his savings in the last couple of years, and at the same time the value of the land and housing is dropping, but apparently not fast enough. Obama, rescued the banks that had many housing loans for exactly the same reason. The average American has only one asset. His house. If Obama hadn't saved these banks, the housing industry would have collapsed. You would be able to buy a house for a thousand dollars! And the common American would have bought a house a couple of years ago and have a mortgage to pay for 300,000 dollars, and an asset worth 1000 dollars! The bank will demand 300,000 dollars and the poor guy won't be able to have anything of value (even if he had a spare 1000 dollars to buy another house, in fear of a personal bankruptcy!) Greeks population was living in almost a 50% in the countryside, and nearly 30% made their living as farmers. All that until the 80ies. The EU, and that means mostly the bigger counties that could pass more laws since they had more representatives, decided that Greece's farmers should be reduced in less than 15%. They gave money to reduce some traditional farming products and never let the market regulate the supply and demand. And that was pretty weird if you ever consider that they also tried to break the monopoly of public companies (like the electric company) when it was obvious that the price for electricity was the cheaper available, because it was public and the factor of profit and greed wasn't getting in the way (remember the USA west coast blackouts created by Enron?) So this is the next question.
If your thoughts are accurate in the bigger picture, who are the players, banks or governments?
Governments and banks are nothing but tools in the hands of the greedy people. The way they behave is pointing to this direction, and the only thing that do not allow us to be exact, is the lack of evidence admissible to a court. Which by the way is totally corrupt, on its own, anyway. But the intent is there, the motive is there and the way things are going, the victim will be there as well, and it won't be just Greece.
Sorry for the long and in several points confusing answer. It is hard to set the foundations of thoughts in a few words, in order to give clear answers. But by all means you are welcome to ask anything.
As for the Chinese, it is a hard nut to break. I mean, that the tradition of China is deeply rooted in the people, and that is why, even though the mighty USSR collapsed, China insists being a communist country (even in nothing but name and slave wages). That is why they try to spend their cash, investing and buying all over the world, because they fear that in a little while money will have no value whatsoever. They still produce like crazy, when sales and exports have generally decreased. They produce cheap products, but nobody has the money to buy. Economists don't have a definite answer for that. China stores all these products, for the time being, but eventually they will have to come up with a solution. Either pay their people more money in order to be able to afford the products of their own hands, or well that is the case, or what?
And please remember, although I spent a great deal of time writing this, I still believe that the number one issue for all people is ECOLOGY. What good is economy, if we turn earth into a desert?
