To add to the other Greece Breaking News story (Greece Defaults, Still Wants Bailout)....
The Ars Writes:
Thom Feeney, a London shoe shop worker who started a campaign to raise €1.6 billion (that's US $1.78 billion). Feeney's IndieGoGo campaign, started just two days ago, has already raised an astonishing €478,575 (or $533,010) from more than 30,000 people.
"All this dithering over Greece is getting boring," Feeney wrote on his IndieGoGo page. "Why don't we the people just sort it instead?" He added that to come up with the €1.6 billion, every member of Europe would only have to give €3 each (well, technically you'd only need to collect from members of the European Union; that's not even counting any potentially generous Swiss or Norwegian people.)
The campaign has six days left to raise money. If €1.6 billion isn't raised, all the donors will get back their money.
This afternoon, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) declared that Greece was officially in arrears, but it has not yet declared that Greece is in default. Technically, the IMF could offer Greece an extension of its debt repayment obligation. On July 5, the country will hold a national referendum on whether to sign a deal demanding even stricter austerity from the nation.
But, if Europeans all chip in, maybe we can just put this silly bailout business behind us.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday July 03 2015, @12:58AM
Interest is not used to offset default risks. If there is some risk the borrower will default, money is not lent at low interest
Nonsense. Someone the other day mentioned Argentina both its multiple defaults over the decades and the current 10+% interest rates it pays for debt. A replier noted that the unusually high interest rate was precisely due to the default risk premium that Argentina had to pay in order to borrow that money. And that's pretty much what you say in the second sentence. Of course, if the borrower is flaky enough, then no one will lend without collateral at any interest rate.