I wish I could pay my bills the way Greece just did.

[dixiegrrrrl]

Greece had a 750 million Euro payment due to the IMF today. They "made" it by writing a check to the IMF funded by "SDR" funds held at the IMF!

Participating nations deposit money in the IMF's SDR fund to be aggregated so the IMF can make loans.
What Greece effectively did was "take back" their IMF SDR deposit in order to pay the IMF.

http://market-ticker.org/akcs-www?post=230126

Downside....in 30 days they are supposed to "replenish" the money into the account.

It has been fun watching how Greece is making the IMF and the ECB tear their hair out.

[unblock]

1. you can! it's called a "balance transfer" and your credit card sends you plenty of such offers.

also known as borrowing from peter to pay paul.
or perhaps in this case, borrowing from paul's left hand to pay paul's right hand....

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

3. Doh. I should have read your comment first, since I basically just made the same comment later.

But it's still funny.

[scscholar]

4. But if the terms are better...

then it is very smart to do that. I don't understand all of the hate for Greece here. Is it because of their long history?

[FSogol]

5. What hate for Greece?

[dixiegrrrrl]

6. What terms?

What hate?

I think you missed the point by a long shot.

[Erich Bloodaxe BSN]

2. Heh heh heh.

Reminds me of those balance transfer checks various credit card companies give you to transfer your debt from a competitor's card to them.