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Greece
February 19, 2012 - 10:51pm
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I'm tired of the BS in the msp.
What actually happened and what is going on here?
Is it as I suspect, and often the cause of these situations, in that the rich just have not been paying their fair share of the taxes.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/story/2012/02/15/f-vp-stewart-greece.html
The New Mediterranean Oil and Gas Bonanza Part II - by F William Engdahl
http://www.boilingfrogspost.com/2012/03/04/the-new-mediterranean-oil-gas...
"The discovery in late 2010 of the huge natural gas bonanza off Israel's [and Gaza-Lebanon] Mediterranean shoes triggered other neighboring countries to look more closely at their own waters. Preliminary exploration has confirmed similarly impressive reserves of gas and oil in the waters off Greece, Turkey, Cyprus and potentially Syria..
Tulane University expert David Hynes told an audience in Athens recently that Greece could potentially solve its entire public debt crisis through development of its new-found gas and oil...
Notably the IMF and EU governments, among them Germany, demand instead that Greece sell off its valuable ports and public companies, among them of course, Greek state oil companies, to reduce state debt.."
Reminder: Austerity Doesn't Work! (and vid)
http://rt.com/programs/big-picture/reminder-austerity-work-thom/
"Thom talks with economist Richard Wolff about the endless economic problems facing Greece and whether their economic devastation is heading to the US.." (This segment is about 31:00 min in )
Hedge Funds Speculate on Greek Default
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2012/mar2012/gree-m08.shtml
"...What is already clear, however, is that three and a half years after the Wall Street crash the most aggressive sectors of speculative finance capital have been able to significantly expand their activities and influence. Furthermore, the global financial system, far from having been stabilized by massive injections of public funds, is inexorably heading toward an even deeper crisis.."
Moody's: Greece Has Defaulted
http://rt.com/news/moody-s-greece-default-debt-241/
"Moody's Investors Service considers Greece to have defaulted per its default definitions. Greece is experiencing its worst economic crisis since World War II and has been on the brink of a default with debt equal to 160 percent of its GDP.."
..here's more on the default.
Financial organisations declare Greece to be in default
Immediately after Greece struck a deal with its creditors late Thursday night, European Union officials hailed the agreement as an important step toward alleviating the European debt crisis. French President Nicolas Sarkozy declared that the Greek problem was settled and added that a “page in the financial crisis is turning.”
A closer look at the deal reached Thursday, however, reveals it to be a further step in shifting the burden of the financial crisis onto the public purse, i.e., the taxpayers, while deepening the agony of the population in Greece and Europe as a whole.
Just a few hours after the agreement had been finalised, following frantic haggling between international financial organisations and the Greek government, the International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA), comprising 15 global banks and investment funds, announced that the deal involved a so-called “credit event.” The ISDA argued that Greece had forced nearly 10 percent of its creditors to accept a haircut on their bond holdings by invoking so-called collective action clauses, resulting in a default on its debts.
This means those hedge funds and banks that insured against a Greek default by means of credit default swaps (CDS) are eligible for payment. The payout of CDS due to the default of a euro country sets a precedent that is expected to drive up interest payments on the sovereign debt of larger European economies such as Spain and Italy. The announcement by the ISDA was followed by statements from the rating agencies Standard & Poor’s and Fitch concurring that the Greek debt swap represented a default.
Far from warding off insolvency, Thursday’s deal represents a significant step towards the official bankruptcy of Greece....
http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=29707
The Greek Crisis Is Only The Beginning - by Nick Beams
http://wsws.org/articles/2012/mar2012/pers-m19.shtml
"...Recalling the methods first developed by British imperialism in the nineteenth century, Greece has been turned into a virtual semi-colony of international finance capital. In all the mass media reportage, the operations of the global financial elite and the debt crisis are shrouded in mystifying and arcane language. But the essential class content is clear: the sovereign debt crisis and the consequent gutting of social spending is one of the central mechanisms of a worldwide social counterrevolution.."
Geithner Turfed Out by EU Bankers March 13 (A podcast interview with renegade economist Michael Hudson)
At about 11:33 into the interview Hudson explains what happened, in layman's terms and he's good at it, at a meeting between EU bankers and U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Tim Geithner at the beginning of March. All in all it sounds like Obama will be screwing U.S. taxpayers to pay EU bankers for the insurance they bought from Wall St casino banks to cover Greek debt defaults. In Hudson's terms, they told Geithner to Get the hell out of here, you bastard. And it sounds like more of the same ongoing financial warfare between Obama's real constituents on Wall Street and EU banksters. Goldman Sachs is a crime gang. Bank of America is a crime gang. And EU bankers are even more the fascists.
A boy doesn’t have to go to war to be a hero; he can say he doesn’t like pie when he sees there isn’t enough to go around. Edgar Watson Howe (1853-1937)I just read this post by a well-known Greek blogger, Kartesios. I decided to translate it (the link to the original post is here). The illustration is by Manos Symeonakis and I decided to add it here with the text below. It’s dedicated to those who believe that the recent haircut saved Greece from bankruptcy. I don’t know about the economy and the banks, but the society and the welfare state (what?) is already bankrupt. Here you go with Kartesios’ post:
...........
I haven’t been writing for the past couple of days because I thought I’d get over it, I’ll calm down and won’t swear. I hoped that if I start writing I won’t be moved, I won’t cry like an idiot. But apparently this is not possible.
It’s not possible because it’s not something that I was told of but something that I lived. He was looking me straight in the eyes and telling me “I’m gonna sell my kidney, mate, but I’ll save her”. He was angry and decided about it. I knew he meant it.....
The co-ruling PASOK party had its national conference today. Its goal is to elect the new party leader who will succeed George Papandreou and will lead the Socialists in the coming elections. The candidates are Christos Papoutsis and Evangelos Venizelos. At some point, an old man, member of PASOK himself, approached Venizelos, complained about the cuts in his pension and then threw him a yogurt before being carried out by bodyguards outside the hall....
http://whenthecrisishitthefan.com/2012/03/10/on-yogurts-as-a-form-of-pol...
For A Reorientation of Greece
http://currentconcerns.ch/index.php?id=1724
"Mr Papandreou had already begun his conspiracy against the Greek people since the summer of 2009 when he met secretly with Strauss-Kahn, with the objective of driving Greece under the domination of the IMF. The information concerning this was released by the former President of the IMF himself.
FOr the situation to reach that end, the country's real financial status had to be distorted, so that foreign Banks would become nervous and raise the loan interest rates to prohibitive figures. What followed was the systematic campaign by Mr Papandreou and the Ministry of Finance throughout Europe that lasted 5 months, during which they tried to persuade the foreigners that Greece was a Titanic about to sink.
After each of their declarations the interest rates increased, so that it became impossible for us to borrow any more, giving IMF and the European Bank the appearance of being our salvation, when in reality it was the beginning of our death..."
http://business.financialpost.com/2012/05/10/greece-may-hold-us510b-trum...
Indirectly related to Greece, Portugal's parliment has revoked four public holidays in an effort to help revive the country's ailing economy. They are now down to twelve public holidays.
Hard left, eh!
Greece hurtles towards new election; hard left leadshttp://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/11/us-greece-idUSBRE8440DG2012051...
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/12/world/europe/impasse-in-greece-could-f...
i'm really looking forward to the next election, to the point of looking to go to greece to do campaign work. this will be the first re-constructed communist party to be democratically elected since allende, and their alter-monde take on european austerity seems exactly right: they have the eu completely cornered, they can extract whatever concessions they want from the bankers, and the domino effect that's felt among norther european tax-payers will only serve further to discredit the neo-liberal consensus and anti-democratic rule that typifies the eu project. in a funny and great way, precisely the lack of democracy that european elites have always found the most appealing feature of continental-level government is precisely what has been fundamentally discredited over the past months (in greece, and elsewhere soon) and, assuming that there are indeed new elections, the non-KKE communist coalition seems poised to capture an outright majority and to direct to make greece something like a laboratory for how to do it differently.
small country, but the very first one.
No matter what happens next in Greece, the Greeks are in for a very long period of substantially lower living standards.
I think that's generally understood. The question is whether this drags on for over a decade with austerity followed by more austerity or Greece tries something different like defaulting, which might be even nastier in the short term but at least offers hope of improvement within five years.
Philip of Greece should offer to help them out in his birth country. I hope all his loyal subjects in Greece remember Phil for abandoning them like this. Tsk tsk.
Abandoning? His father was arrested and in danger of execution when he was banished from the country. He was kicked out at a year old, he didnt abandon it. He doesn't really have any ties there since leaving at a year old and never having been back since
Sorry to interrupt you with facts
I was jesting. He should buy himself a real name. I read that Phil once spent some time in Greece during his days as a dashing young man. Some girls on the beach asked him what his name is, and he replied: Philip of Greece. They couldn't believe someone would not have a proper surname and that his fake name was silly. I don't imagine he uses that handle anymore. I think he just goes by Phil.
Not a true story but does sound charming. His surname was mountbattern.
Yeah old Phil was a real charmer with the ladies apparently. And like your previous claims to fact, Mountbatten is another fake name adopted by a family of frauds.
Regardless of how you may feel about them, that is his surname. He was never without a surname.
One more kick at the can before new elections are called
The extremism of Greece's centre ground
Golden Dawn has become a useful tool in the hands of those who try to equate neo-Nazism with the anti-bailout movement
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/may/12/extremism-greece-cen...
Superb article athough you may not be able to get beyond the NYT paywall.
Leftest Party's Rise Upends Greek Political Order
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/12/world/europe/in-greece-leftist-party-s...
This seems to pretty much guarantee a new election. Democratic Left announced it will not join a coalition with New Democracy and the Socialists
So why doesn't Charlie have the same surname as his dad and Phil's former Uncle Dickie, Leggy Mountbatten? It's pretty odd if you ask me. I still think it's a fake name.
I'm thinking of changing my legal name to Fidel Fifi Inigo Trixibelle Racer Maximillio Steven Mo cuishle Nobody THE Krrrraken-nuh! Harald Bufo Adada Bazaark of the North.
I had to do a double take before realizing it wasn't one of your usual musings.