New Greece austerity move prompts strikes and protests

[Windsor]

Greece Should Do It The Iceland Way

JAIL THE BANKSTERS AND CORRUPT ADMINTRATORS!!

http://economicsurvivor.net/2011/11/02/greek-gold-and-goldman-sucks/

Goldman Sucks Greek Gold

So by now we know that the Greek cabinet is backing the country’s Prime Minister’s decision to ask citizens in a referendum whether they want to be stripped and gang-raped slowly or to have a painful but quicker rebirth into the new economic landscape of uncertainty that inevitably awaits us all after imminent financial collapse. Iceland has already told the bankers to **** off – refusing to accept “austerity measures” similar to those now hanging over Greece (and indeed the rest of the EU). Furthermore, Iceland even jailed banksters for bringing their corrupt crises to the country’s 320,000 people. Iceland’s economy is faring better now than its EU neighbours’, having done the right thing by making creditors, rather than citizens, take responsibility for bank debts.

Nonetheless, mainstream media is going all-out with eugenic slurs to taint Greeks as being inefficient at best, lazy and corrupt at worst. Although the debt is of the banksters’ making, it is the ordinary Greek citizen who is to be blamed and punished – especially if they vote to follow Iceland’s example.
So forget about the dark links between Greek PM George Papandreou and Goldman Sachs, and that Goldman Sachs for years helped the Greek government hide the true extent of its debt problems – only to profit now by betting against Greece’s teetering economy. But no, we must accept that it was that fat, lazy, greasy Greek over there wot dunnit … Extra! Extra!!!

The International Monetary Fund, responsible for dishing out expensive loans in the form of “national” bailouts, will certainly want to get its hands on Greek assets, including new gold mines being built in the north of the country. Thus, think nothing either of incestuous relationships existing between Goldman Sachs and its ex-employees placed in the IMF and other trans-national bankster mob outfits.
Other EU countries will fall like dominoes, with the Euro collapsing as a currency. Surely there are similar tales about to emerge from Spain, Italy … and in other economically troubled countries waiting to know the likely fallout from the Greek decision.

The truth will emerge from this long and deep rabbit hole. In any event, it’s surely better to fight on your feet, as in Iceland, than to suffer repeated robbery and continual f*sting by the mob … no?

 

[Fook Seng]

JAIL THE BANKSTERS AND CORRUPT ADMINTRATORS!!

http://economicsurvivor.net/2011/11/02/greek-gold-and-goldman-sucks/

Goldman Sucks Greek Gold

So by now we know that the Greek cabinet is backing the country’s Prime Minister’s decision to ask citizens in a referendum whether they want to be stripped and gang-

Whether Greece should be rescued by its Euro partners or be kicked out of the Eurozone is in effect this - whether the debt should be paid by the govts of Euro partners or by the private investors of Greek Govt bonds? These investors could be other sovereign funds, past Euro lenders, private bankers, investment funds etc, perhaps even Golden Sachs. Large French banks like BNP Paribas and Societe Generale are heavily exposed. To support Greece at the Euro level means govts have to absorb Greece's debts. That is why the Rescue Package requires the creditors to forgo 50% of their debts on an effective co-sharing basis. G to G need to be repaid. As no one expects Greece to be able pay back this debt even with a 50% discount, they have to re-structure their economy. On the other hand, if Greece is kicked out of the Euro, the private investors of its bonds will have to bear the full loss less whatever the Greece Govt can honor. Greece can of course print more currency and use that to pay but this will cause a devaluation making the derived value very little. The private and institutional investors will suffer heavily but at least Govts are not as heavily affected. Only the economy and the financial markets will suffer badly. Some of these investors like banks might need their respective govts to bail them out but at least the govts can select where the money should go to and on their own terms. You say to hell with the bankers. I understand this to mean kick Greece out of the Eurozone.

 

[TheFootballer]

i haven't heard of an exit strategy in EU yet... when they formed and start accepting member..the mentality is 1 for all.. all for 1..
This big talk by merkie and sarkie is just big talk of confidence to whole world that they can let Greece go.. no problem..EU will still stay together.. I think that is rubbish.. Once Greece gone.... Everyone will start to vibrate and keep speculating who is next to Go.. how to maintain credibility of EU ? The banks will start to tighten.. Exposed govts get double whammy... There will be no huge bailouts this time...
Time to let some banks go.
And for fiaks sake... Please cut off Funds/Investment Arm from Consumer banks. everytime those smart alec fiak up... everybody have to bear their stink.

 

[singveld]

Should we feel sorry for Greece?


Greece is at the eye of the storm gathering over the world economy, and threatening to tear the eurozone apart. But should the rest of us be sorry for Greece, or angry? Here, two experts present opposing arguments for and against sympathy.

Now is not the time to feel sorry for the Greeks”

Nicholas Walton European Council on Foreign Relations

There's a popular new parlour game in Europe, where players complete the sentence: "Did you know that in Greece…?"

Here are some winning examples:

The railway system would be cheaper if every passenger was taken to their destination by taxi
Every MP has the right to an official car
There are more Porsche owners than taxpayers declaring an income of over €50,000 (£43,000)

Some answers may stretch the truth, but the bottom line is that Greece has evidently squandered the benefits of being in the eurozone in a quite startling way.

Instead of using low interest rates and the efficiencies of the world's largest single market as a mechanism to drive economic modernisation, Greek politicians continued their game of buying support by splurging state largesse.

The Greek people played too.

At the same time, of course, the national game of tax avoidance continued at Olympic levels of performance, while the books - with notable outside help and connivance - were cooked.

The economic tide has now firmly receded, and it's obvious that the Greeks have been skinny dipping, with the result that this rather small corner of the mighty eurozone is now terrifying commanders-in-chief and potentates from Berlin, to Washington, to Beijing.

This small crack in the dream of a common European currency has the potential to become a Charybdis-like whirlpool, sucking in the whole world economy.

The Greeks, of course, are far from the only ones to blame. Others built a fatally flawed euro edifice, while others also broke rules or turned a blind eye while rules were broken.

The Greeks themselves - many of whom, too young to be tainted by blame, now face a devastatingly bleak future - will suffer mightily in years to come.

But in the depths of a crisis the priority is not to blame or to feel too much pity - the real priority is to get out of the crisis. Now is not the time to feel sorry for the Greeks

We should feel sorry for the Greeks, because they have been asked to do the impossible over the last two years. They have imposed public spending cuts that are greater than any developed economy has ever succeeded in carrying out.

To argue that they have been backsliding, or reneging on their obligations, or free-riding on the goodwill of other eurozone economies is inaccurate and quite unfair.

There is no doubt that Greece is one of the architects of its misfortune - successive Greek governments have mismanaged the country's public finances. But no country can put its public finances on a sustainable footing if its economy is in free fall, and these unprecedented cuts in public spending have pushed the economy into a deep slump.

And now, despite the fact that the strategy over the last two years has failed, and has proved completely counter-productive, Greece is being asked to impose further very very deep cuts in public spending. And if the Greeks fail to meet their budget targets (as they inevitably will, irrespective of how hard they try meet them), they will then be stripped of sovereignty over important aspects of economic policy.

It's a terrible position to put a country into. It's very risky and, I would say, runs counter to what the European Union is supposed to stand for.

I don't have much sympathy for the Greek elite. They took the country into the currency union against the advice of most economists. They joined for the wrong reasons - a determination to have a seat at the top table rather than a careful analysis of the country's economic interests. But they were hardly alone in making this mistake.

The Greek people do deserve our sympathy, however. They face unprecedented economic hardship, with no light at the end of the tunnel.

If Britain were in the eurozone it would not doubt be having to slash public spending by massively more than it is currently doing. Would there, in a such a situation, be no cause for sympathy with us?

 

[neddy]

No future in Greece.

1. Youth unemployment reaching 50%
2. 30,000 public servants suspended, the rest on 40% pay cut
3. GST (VAT) from 13% to 23%
4. The government still enjoying life while the people suffer. Politicians still bickering among themselves.
5. Black market + corruption worsen

Jobs disappear in Greece
The graph below shows the dramatic rise in unemployment, reaching over 16 per cent in the second quarter of 2011.*Greece - Standardised unemployment, Rate, Total (all ages), Total (male & female); unspecified; Eurostat; Seasonally adjusted, not working day adjusted, percentage of civilian workforce.*
Source: Statistical Office of the European Commission (Eurostat)


Greeks are coming by the planeloads to Australia.

This is back to 1970s under the Commies except because they do not own their own currency, they are suffering needless longterm pains.

The country has long being dyfunctional and spend half its independence in some sort of troubles.

 

[Fook Seng]

No future in Greece.

The country has long being dyfunctional and spend half its independence in some sort of troubles.

There is no way Greece can recover while staying in the Eurozone. They are a misfit kid from day one. They would have been straining very hard to keep up from the beginning but did not and continued with their carefree existence. Their situation is a accumulation of all. Even without this backlog of debt to clear, it would be a struggle. To help Greece and also the EU, Greece must be out if the Eurozone. Let the financial market take the hit. Greece can then have their own currency and plan their recovery within their own means rather than straight jacketed into a Euro mold. They will have a better chance to find their own level but it will be a much lower level than before. Many financial institutions will be in trouble, the financial market as a whole, in fact, but at least the various govts can pick and choose which institutions to rescue and they do not take the full hit, sharing it with the private sector. I believe the Euro elites are resigned to facing this eventuality. There will be financial for everyone in the next few years and we should all be prepared. It will not be the usual demand-supply imbalance that can recover in a few days, weeks or months. It is a structural thing. It would take some years. Let's hope it is not 10 and more like 3 of 4 years.

 

[Bigfuck]

There is no way Greece can recover while staying in the Eurozone. They are a misfit kid from day one. They would have been straining very hard to keep up from the beginning but did not and continued with their carefree existence. Their situation is a accumulation of all. Even without this backlog of debt to clear, it would be a struggle. To help Greece and also the EU, Greece must be out if the Eurozone. Let the financial market take the hit. Greece can then have their own currency and plan their recovery within their own means rather than straight jacketed into a Euro mold. They will have a better chance to find their own level but it will be a much lower level than before. Many financial institutions will be in trouble, the financial market as a whole, in fact, but at least the various govts can pick and choose which institutions to rescue and they do not take the full hit, sharing it with the private sector. I believe the Euro elites are resigned to facing this eventuality. There will be financial for everyone in the next few years and we should all be prepared. It will not be the usual demand-supply imbalance that can recover in a few days, weeks or months. It is a structural thing. It would take some years. Let's hope it is not 10 and more like 3 of 4 years.

The people in Greece cannot take pain. Fortunately, they have no ability of waging a war. We will see how Greece prostitute themselves as they have done so historically. It will be fun to see what happens under the name of democracy. Changing any leader does not change the debt.