Steve B
They do .... $$$Triillions .. in the most of Europe and USA 'printing money' is called 'Quantitive Easing' ...
Greece. however, has been on a spending spree (ever since they joined the Euro) with Uncle Fritz's Credit Card and has just discovered that they max'ed out the card AGAIN after TWO credit limit extensions ... but what REALLY upset them was when Uncle Fritz made the mistake of asking when they were planning to pay ANY of it back .. and when they failed to come up with an answer, Fritz reduced their 'allowance' (they borrowed from IMF to pay back EU loans, but when they went back to EU for cash to pay back the IMF, the EU cut then off)
Fact is, they lied to get into the Euro and have lied ever since, just racking up debts they knew they could never pay back and spending every cent as fast as they could get it ..
Unfortunatly for Greece, they can't print Euros (any more than Mexico can print US $) == the only way they are going get out of their debts is to walk away (leave the Euro) and start printing Drachma again ..
Of course that will mean high inflation - and having to pay high interest on all the new debts they will run up ...
....so they would MUCH rather have the morons running the EU simply 'let them off' half their debts (so they can run up even more 'loans' that they won't ever pay back) == after all, they have done it TWICE already, so I guess there is no reason why the EU won't let the 'get away with it' agian (other than the fact that 'left wing' groups in Spain & Italy are queueing up to get in on the 'never ending loans from Uncle Fritz' racket )
SumDude
You misunderstand the term "print money." We are NOT talking about pictures of dead presidents on green paper. A government "prints" money every time it pays a bill with no money on the books. Or think like using a credit card that you will never pay off. When Obama gave $8,000 for each house purchase, and $4,000 for "Cash for Clunkers" the government was printing money. {ditto many other programs - which is why the U S is $17Trillion in debt.} << But the U S is a extremely wealthy country. Grazing land, wild animals, timber, precious metals,,,,. [The U S is paying off its debt to China with coal - of which we have a 300 year supply.]
Greece is a socialist society. The government (say for example) gives all old people social security, all new moms get a year paid vacation, everyone gets national health care,,,, but their industries are not making enough to pay for these things - and more things are needed to send to other countries to pay their debt.
^^ I did not explain that too well, but if everything is handed to everyone on a silver platter, why work? And if there are no workers, nothing gets done, and no food is available (and that is what could have been coming in as foreign aid). No food means hungry people, and riots, and demands the government give them food, but there is no food. Then the country falls apart. {Civil unrest, civil riots, the military might take over,,, }
?
Countries in Europe that joined the Euro Financial System do not have the ability to print more money. The printing is controlled by the commission. Printing more money just causes inflation and devaluates the dollar, it does not solve the problem.
Judy
That only causes massive inflation and that county's money becomes almost worthless. A few countries have actually tried that over the years, always with disastrous results.
annie42
Because it is easier to get the government to bail them out.