oh golly gee darn, what a surprise!! ;)

By Bill | January 2, 2012 12:26 PM

What a wise investment that turned out to be!

By Stefan | January 2, 2012 4:08 PM

It’s been said with good reason to Beware of Greeks bearing gifts- Remember the famous Trojan horse. Today this has changed to Beware of Greek debts. Might be wise to fear the Greeks as they are incapable of handling their debts leaving all EU countries supporting their Trojan horse. Not “if” but “when” Greece defaults the damage to the European banking system will be even greater and the EU will be in danger of total collapse. Governments will always borrow more money before they cut spending and eurozone leaders continue to treat the crisis as if it can be resolved with short-term financial fixes.

By V | January 2, 2012 6:07 PM

you mean Jan Kees got it wrong?!? what a surprise...

By Dennis Mansell | January 2, 2012 9:46 PM

the whole EU is teetering on the brink of total collapse. anyone and everyone could see from the start that Greece was not able to repay the money - duh. my message to our EU leaders - wake up idiots, this is not basis school where you get to take your exercises over and over until you get it right! you had your chances already, and you failed - yes, FAILED. Please step down and make way for more competent leadership. One word for you: Pathetic.
China and the US will step in and take control now - the EU party is nearly over.

By Bill | January 3, 2012 10:39 AM

"The Netherlands is responsible for €4.7bn of the €110bn loan made to Greece in May 2010. Its share of the new €130bn loan has yet to be finalised, the FD said."

I would think that if the NL government is in danger of not getting their €4.7bn (which is really our tax revenue) back, then the NL share of the "new €130bn loan" (is it really a loan if never paid back?) should be zero.

By Colin Bridgewater | January 3, 2012 11:19 AM

In reality this is just the start of things to come in 2012, it is set to be a tough year with all EU countries having to bail out, be bailed out and pour more of our hard earned cash into the drains of the EU. We will just stand by and let them take us to the route of EU disaster. But, we will all be bust by then so what the hell.

By AndyT | January 3, 2012 4:07 PM

Sadly these days there seems to be little advantage of having EU membership: church, state, EU, it's all about control & money, little if no benefit at all for us, except for the elite?

By The visitor | January 3, 2012 4:30 PM

Bill: That is ridiculous. The only the thing that is actually happening is that tax payers in the EU are bailing out German, French, British, and Dutch banks who made terrible loans.

As that is the real goal, they have succeeded masterfully.

By Kevin | January 4, 2012 11:32 AM

@Bill, the US will step in? Seriously? They are falling apart quicker than the EU!

By Tera | January 4, 2012 2:08 PM

@Bill: +1

By John | January 4, 2012 4:31 PM

@Kevin: +1

By John | January 4, 2012 4:33 PM

Kevin, please read the WSJ or the FT any day of the week regarding the euro, its survival and the impending collapse of the european union. this is front page news on every international financial newspaper around the world. Not in the Dutch papers, look in international media.
Tera: if you read the above papers, etc, and you have any insight into the global markets, you can very quickly see that the US is already on the path to recovery. The euro is on its way down.

By Bill | January 4, 2012 5:02 PM

Until our glorious leaders actually bring the bankers into line (and arrest a good number of them) we will continue to see this bankrupting of different countries. Money doesn't go missing.. it is in the pockets of the criminal bankers, many of whom are immune to arrest due to their friends in politics. This isn't an economic problem - it's a criminal one. And corruption certainly plays it's part too.

By Andy | January 4, 2012 10:41 PM

Tera: Falling apart? True in that US banks did a great job of getting bailout money to pay for their foolish mistakes aka as greed. housing crisis - another problem which seems never-ending as many don't care about owning a home anymore. Expensive and money can be better spent without all the responsibility of home ownership and paying taxes. Don't worry the US can't afford to step in to help EU. But US gov't does keep the money printing presses running day and night,nonstop lately. Wonder where all that money goes?

By CM | January 4, 2012 11:08 PM

Bear in mind that the US and China are still the world's 2 most powerful and influential countries. Even though the US economy has weakened - considerably - the US still has one of the highest GDP's in the world, much much higher than any EU country. In addition, the US dollar is the benchmark currency used and recognized in all global markets around the world.
The EU, as its going now, will never ever be a super power like the US and China. We will all be fortunate if it doesn't completely collapse in the coming year. For more info on this read any global financial newspaper. I am not making this up folks.

By Bill | January 5, 2012 5:22 AM

So comforting to know that spread-the-debt works for NL & the EU as well as O'Bama's spread-the-nonexistent-wealth worked for the United States of America. Socialist "spreading" brings mediocrity to ever-increasing lows.

By Drawer 22 | January 5, 2012 6:32 AM

as I write this comment, the euro is trading at 1.29 against the US dollar (and the yen for that matter) - falling further in value each day for months. sure hope people understand what is happening, this is a very serious situation. this is no longer about banks, our entire global economic system is at risk, no joke folks.
please read and inform yourselves and try to make intelligent well thought through choices, please!

By Bill | January 5, 2012 9:18 AM

@Bill +2
Bill’s right about the downward spiral of EU and euro. EU leaders never actually thought to monitor what could happen should they run into major economic slowdowns along with bailing out euro countries like Greece (twice) with most likely Italy next in line. Hungary might also become the first EU country to default unless IMF steps in and Germany is currently revising a proposal to write down 75 percent of Greek government bonds. The bigger question: How much will Italy expect in similar write-offs should they need bailing out which seems inevitable with the slowing economy? Will Greece be able to continue in the euro zone ?

By Kati | January 5, 2012 5:09 PM

@Bill, I think you missed the point. -The bailouts sure aren't going to the people of Greece. -They're being used to make criminal bankers whole on their scandalous, corrupt, and fraudulent loans.

Pulling out of the Euro will not work. In fact, it will just make trading with other countries more difficult. -who wants to make things in the Netherlands or use it as an import/export when you have no idea what the currency is going to do? Same goes for people who think Greece, Italy, and Spain will just pull out and inflate their debt away... You don't think France and Germany are going to raise trade barriers to protect their export industry?

By Kevin | January 6, 2012 4:43 PM