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AFP - Getty Images
German Chancellor Angela Merkel speaks with members of her delegation before a session of the G20 Summit in Los Cabos, Mexico on Monday. Increasingly isolated on the world stage, Merkel faces waning popular support at home for further German-led bailouts of other euro zone nations.
WEIMAR, Germany -- Time is running out for Angela Merkel.
The German chancellor -- Europe’s last, best hope for staving off financial and economic ruin -- is running out of options to save the euro zone’s common currency.
Sunday’s cliffhanger Greek elections may have postponed Athens’ departure from the common currency, along with the risk of a wider euro zone recession that would threaten Germany’s export-reliant economy. But Athens has yet to form a new government willing to accede to Germany’s demands for continued, painful spending cuts.
"We want Europe, we want to cooperate," said Filippos Nikolopoulos, a sociology professor at Crete University. "But we do not want to be subjugated by Mrs. Merkel."
In 18 summit meetings over two years, European leaders have tried and failed to agree on a way out of the debt crisis. Now, Greece has little time to form a new government. With a shrinking cash balance leaving Athens days away from issuing IOUs to government workers, the so-called troika of bailout agencies– the IMF, EU and European Central Banks - are refusing to send a new mission to Greece until it’s clear who they will be negotiating with.
Even if a government can be formed, the political divisions that have brought Greece to the brink of economic collapse remain deeply entrenched.
“There is significant risk that this government, if formed, will be weak and short-lived,” said David Rosenberg, chief economist at Gluskin Sheff. “Lacking is the deep popular support needed to usher in critical legislation. Instead, we can probably look forward to policy paralysis.”
Merkel not only faces continued resentment among Greeks but is also losing support among her own voters, especially for her plan to bind Europe more closely in a common political union that would require Germans to cede sovereignty to Brussels and turn over more power to the European Parliament.
John Schoen / msnbc.com
German student Mara Loth is opposed to proposals that would tighten the European union.
“I feel more secure living in a smaller country with its own government,” said Mara Loth, an architecture student at Bauhaus University. “I think if Europe were like the U.S. -- if all the states were put together -- I wouldn’t even understand my president because he would talk another language. So I really, really hope this doesn't happen.”
German prides runs high here in the town that gave its name to a democratic regime that ruled between world wars until it was undone -- largely by economic turmoil. While cable news channels are devoting heavy coverage to Merkel’s negotiations with world leaders at the G20 summit meeting in Mexico, most TV screens stay tuned to the latest round of the Euro 2012 soccer championship, in which Germany remains a strong contender.
PhotoBlog: World leaders pose for family picture at G20 summit
Merkel finds herself increasingly isolated in her quest to save Europe by prescribing harsh medicine to southern neighbors that include the kind of of spending cuts and labor reforms that helped revive Germany’s moribund economy a decade ago.
For a time, Merkel enjoyed the support of her neighbor, former French President Nicolas Sarkosy, who lent the support of Europe’s second-largest economy to demands for fiscal austerity in Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy. But Sarkozy's recent loss to socialist François Hollande, who campaigned on a promise to reverse the tightfisted policies of his predecessor, has left Merkel with just a handful of smaller northern European allies. Merkel’s austerity roadmap was further eroded Sunday when French voters strengthened their support for Hollande’s new government.
Burdened by the history of two world wars fought over its former leaders' imperial ambitions, Germans are deeply averse to calls that they assume an even larger role in reversing Europe's deepening political divide and widening financial crisis. Such calls have come in recent weeks President Barack Obama, Hollande, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Italian Prime Minister Mario Monti, among others.
Merkel has steadfastly resisted proposals for new measures such as a bank union to guarantee deposits, a debt repayment fund to free up frozen credit markets, and the pooling of borrowing among euro zone members through the creation of a common euro bond. Some economists warn that unless Merkel supports such measures, the unwinding of the euro zone will accelerate.
Germany is not unsympathetic to the plight of its struggling southern neighbors. The Berlin government has already contributed the bulk of the nearly 700 billion euros ($900 billion) raised for various bailout funds and guarantees. With demand for its exports already beginning to soften, many German workers clearly understand the threat of a widening recession outside German borders.
But so far, the euro crisis, for most Germans, is still contained largely to newspaper headlines and TV reports. Increasingly isolated on the world stage, Merkel faces waning popular support at home for further bailouts. Though Germans support the preservation of the common currency that helped boost their export economy, opinion polls show opposition to further bailouts running about two to one.
And there is little appetite for Merkel’s plan for a United Europe.
“Even though Germany has economic problems, it is one of the leading countries in Europe,” said Loth, the Bauhaus student. “That’s why I feel like I’m in a good position living in Germany right compared to other European countries. I understand why, and I understand that countries having bigger economic problems need to be supported and I understand that they need help too. But I think uniting Europe is not going to solve that problem."
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The need to outline a lasting strategy to save the euro currency and the escalating violence in Syria are on the agenda, as world leaders meet in Los Cabos, Mexico for a G20 summit. NBC's Chuck Todd reports.
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Germany the only country in Europe with any sense left.
Traditionally the Germans work HARD; the Greeks have got the work ethic of Zorba and the Italians elect sex-pervert clowns such as Berlusconi to high office. No wonder Herr und Frau Joe six-pack in an only recently re-united Germany are wary of throwing their Euros down a black hole
G20 summit: Barroso blames eurozone crisis on US banks
EC president says European leaders have not come to Mexico to receive lessons on how to handle the economy
The opening day of the G20 summit was threatening to deteriorate into a fractious row between eurozone countries and other non-European members of the G20, notably the US, as EU commission president José Manuel Barroso insisted the origins of the eurozone crisis lay in the unorthodox policies of American capitalism.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jun/18/g20-summit-barroso-eurozone-crisis
A united Europe will not work. There are multiple languages, diverse heritages, different cultures, varying political philosophies, different productivity levels, etc. Taking away sovereignty goes against the way most people were raised.
Do you really think Americans outside of the state of Illinois would want to bail them out because of their irresponsible fiscal policies? Then...why would you expect Germans to send more money to Greece knowing full well that they won't be able to meet the tenants of the IMF, EU and ECB?
Merkel is in a "no win" situation.
The leader of the ND party in Greece has already stated that if they can form a government, they will want to renegotiate the tenants.
Greece is in a recession. That means revenues are contracting. Further austerity measures cannot be funded.
Ah, now I get it....The German Reich march lives on under Herr Merkle! As Herr Merkel goosesteps her way across the EU with her Wehrmacht economic policies. Like the E.U. wants to be controlled by Germany. Like the United Nations telling Americans on what fiscal policy they should adopt. That will go over big here in America. Sig Heil Merkle!
There is such a thing as National Sovereignty and the people of France, Italy, Spain and Greece are telling the Germans to shove it!
Josef Ackermann, chief executive officer of Deutsche Bank, was paid a bonus of $8.2 million last year. By comparison:
"$3.6 billion in bonuses were distributed to “a small number of individuals” at Merrill Lynch just before they collapsed. Cuomo said that Merrill “chose to make millionaires out of a select group of 700 employees,” and that an even smaller group was awarded “gigantic bonuses.”
After the top four recipients received $121 million, the next four received a combined $62 million, he said, and the next six a combined $66 million. He didn’t identify the recipients.
Overall, the top 149 people who got bonuses received a combined $858 million, according to Cuomo’s letter, and 696 people got bonuses of $1 million or more."
Germany doesn't owe anyone anything. They have the only non-criminal banking system in the world. The US is at the opposite end of the spectrum and has no right to pressure anyone to do anything, until they clean up their own cesspool.
"I wouldn’t even understand my president because he would talk another language."
I can't imagine that.
There is a point financially that once it is passed there will be no return America has passed that point also, what gets me is people argue about it constantly but did not want to do what had to be done, the world is over populated there are more people than jobs, people spend money but when there are a few people that have most of the money what will happen, is does not go back into circulation and this is one of the reasons We are at this point. Face it's over, the opportunity to fix it has now passed.... What happens when precious metals have no value, can't eat it can you.
Germany like USA are backed by heavy corporations. These corporations have invested heavily into notes that realestate based/valued. These corporations (securities/banks) don't want to loose their money and they want the governments to back their investments with taxpayer's $... I am simplifying of course, but it is the jest of it all.
Greece, Spain, Ireland, Portugal and Italy all had serious question marks on the valuation during the development of the Euro. Yet, the securtiesd firms such as GS and other buried those questionable assets or bought up those assests hoping that they can be sold off during continuing economical expansion... Well, the economy does not continually expand, it burps in between growth!
So for Germany not owning up, because Greece not committing to their debt is simply BS. The lunacy of saying Greek is not working hard is just as ignorant, becauase Greece has a much longer working hours than Germany. It is all about the corporations not wanting to take the losses on their investment and trying to hold out for a better deal through the weight of their government...
Some of you can't even call it for what it is... A SHAKE DOWN by the International corporations and investors through their goons (the governments). PRICELESS!!!!
Just another house of cards waiting to collapse.
All of these 'bailouts/stimulus' etc are nothing more then stop-gaps.
At the end of the day, this needs to correct on it's own...this mess we are in is the result of just really bad management of our financials....
...and that means a lot of 'IOU's' and 'debt' is going to be thrown out. Wealth is going to evaporate. Deflation is going to occur and a correction is going to take place.
Greece vote for a conservative government, unions and socialist lost in their intent to quit the Euro zone, leaving millions in debt behind. With the idea of the socialist , no to Euro and more spending , the consequences could even worst, isolation and no financial opportunities. Spain reciently elect Mariano Rajoi another conservative who is working to put put his house in order, the only sociliast new elected is the president of France who share with Obama the same socialist ideas , however what he is doing first is to reduce the working hours for French workers, reduce the minimum retirement age and more government spending. Is not difficult to predict that the same policies that bring the the collapse to other socialist government will do to France also.Holland and Obama, both have too much in common, no common sense.
This is just the type of mess that happens when countries are controlled by a worldwide corrupt banking system. My question is...... what are the banks going to do if everyones broke and can't pay the crazy interest? Put us all in beggars prisons....... or worse?
Keep medicare, social security at the current levels, leave public pensions at the same levels they are now with barely any contribution from the employees, this is future America. Demand all politicians to stop saying everything is okay now so don't change it, think about the furture.
@JaneEco: The Germans are supplying their hard earned money that they have because they have been fiscally responsible, unlike Greece. Why wouldn't Germany and other EU countries demand fiscal responsibility of Greece? How is that wrong? To demand responsibility when someone else is bailing you out is not an unreasonable request. America is in financial trouble also, it just hasn't made headlines yet and therefore is not a reality to most Americans.
Read a little before you make such blanket statements. Of the 27 member nations of the EU, all but 3 have a lower public debt that we do. We spend our tax dollars on weapons of mass destruction, massive military presence and I know the world laughs as us. It that fat defense budget were sliced in half, we could bring down the national debt. When it happens, feel free to open fire on the EU countries.
And--off the beaten part. To the guy panhandling in Portland at the market every Saturday---while using a iPhone--eat the frigging iPhone. Sell some pencils, turn cartwheels, whatever--don't sit on your ass begging for cash while watching HULU or youtube on a $500 phone and harassing people for cash.
Germany should get the he.l out of the euro and go on it's own.
So the Southern Europeans want the Germans to keep on giving them loans so they can continue living beyond their means, and the Germans are say 'enough'.
It looks like all of the 'bailouts' by Germany are just delaying the inevitable breakup of the European Union, and Germany is going to bear the brunt of the immediate financial cost as those loans are devalued.
This is what happens when nations live beyond their means - like the United States has been doing.
And what's Obama's solution - more spending and more debt. We need both spending cuts and tax increases - but it likely won't happen unless Romney is elected. If Obama is reelected, we will follow Greece in about 4 years.
By the way - Germany imposed their 'austerity' program over the last 10 years, and it is paying off now for them. We have yet to start any austerity here.
If you cut the defense budget in half we're still running red ink to the tune of $800B per year. Gonna have to cut something else, too; like benefits.
Like laying off civilian employees of the Federal government before benefits. Do you not understand this is where the other $800 billion is spent? A contractor may charge the federal government almost $15 a 8" concrete block on a job supervised by the Corps of Engineers, Park Service, Homeland Security, etc.
The Germans sacrificed after WWII and rebuilt 1/2 the country while occupied by France, England and the USA. Then after the Soviet Union imploded they absorbed and rebuilt East Germany and it's people without a whimper. You should not mention Germans taking advantage of Greeks in the same breath.
you do know there are active fascist parties in germany.and you also know they predominately get new members from the middle class when its squeezed financially.we live in interesting times do we not.lol ill bet the russians are loving this.
People generalize (or allow themselves to be simpliefied) so often that they lost sight of facts. Government deficits did not get get USA nor Germany into this particular perdicament. It was the private sector. Specifically, it was the Financial, the Securities and the Insurance Industries. They are the once who gambled up securities and notes that were improperly rated (knowingly or unknowningly). Because they are too big to fail, because our government allowed them to merge and to unregulate, their failures would have created a catastrophical global monetary meltdown.
Should we have allowed them to fail??? Fortunately or unfortunately, they installed failsafe switch device in the government. Where the government officials under pressure will BAIL out the industry to ensure that the economy keeps moving forward (or forward the losses to the tax payers). In the case of the USA, apparantly there are still a bunch of idiots who blame their fellow taxpayers and the Democrats. In the case of the Germans, apparantly they are going through the same. Except they already saw what happened in USA. So are they going to shrink the budget or are they going to expand the GDP so that tax revenue has a chance to catch up to the deficits....
hmmm, let us see how many lobbysts they have????
@Roy Wilson & Yank, Are you certain of your facts in regards to Germany's Austerity Program for the past 10 years? According to Der Spiegel, "Calculations made by the influential Cologne Institute for Economic Research indicate that only €4.7 billion ($6.16 billion) of the €11.2 billion in austerity measures stipulated by the savings package actually took shape in 2011." It means "...Only 42 percent of the spending cuts named by Merkel's coalition government, comprised of the conservative Christian Democrats and the business-friendly Free Democratic Party, were actually implemented." In addition, German does not keep a standing army unlik that of USA... So please tell me how much of deficit would USA have if we don't need to have a military defense. BTW, without a military budget, we would not of entered into 2 unpaid wars as well!!!! NICE OVERSIGHT!!!
This is what happens when countries insist on living beyond their means. Pouring money into Greece was a bad risk to begin with, but any more would clearly be throwing good money after bad at this point.
Lamarquise: Are you certain you know what you're talking about when you claim that the Greece and its people are living beyond their means???? Greek's debt are much due from the time that they entered EU. They entered EU with their books opened. The fiancial firms bundled the debts by repackaging them and selling them other EU banks and financers. Unfortunately these debts are improperly rated through no faults of Greece and its people... This should sound familiar!!!!
Dave20121....
You do realize that you have essentially described the U.S., right? The only difference being that we started out controlled by monarchy's, overthrew them and created a constitutional republic. Europe just needs to redefine it's governing system and what role monarchy's will play. Won't be easy though.
thturd - Why do you think Greece had all that debt piled up then? There are plenty of articles online detailing how the welfare state policies of the Greek government have brought about this crisis, and the people are apparently trying to ignore the role their early retirement and demand for public benefits and tax evasion and large percentage of the population employed by the government is playing in their problems. I don't claim it's their only problem; the euro and the EU was a bad idea for Greece from the start and EU monetary policy has clearly been bad for Greece. But it's Greece's government and people who bought in and who've since refused to adjust to the realities and just keep demanding what their country can't afford.
What came in German through exports went out through bail out packages.
Most are not touching on the origins of these problems.
These are Iraqi wars by greedy manipulations of oil prices higher by Saudis, oil companies, their lobbyists and puppets like Bushes in the US, Blairs, Sarkozys, Merkels and dancers along with them.
Oil prices, which were hardly $30 a barrel before 1991, shot up to $140 a barrel.
Since 2003, future traders, rating agencies, Wall Street and oil companies and their lobbyists transferred five trillion dollars from oil importing countries to oil exporting nations.
Leave the expenses on wars including "war on terrorism" on Sunni Saudi invented al-Qaida, Taliban and so on!
We are back to square one with WMDs in Iran as in Iraq; sanctions on Iranian oil; oil price manipulations higher and higher from $40 in 2009 to around $100 now.
Now Merkel can follow Sarkozy and EU economic ruin and collapse countdown has started.
Does anybody know if Europe had the equivalent of a Glass-Steagall act around 1999 or 2000? Was it removed in the US to be competitive against Europe?
James:"...and that means a lot of 'IOU's' and 'debt' is going to be thrown out. Wealth is going to evaporate. Deflation is going to occur and a correction is going to take place."
Right on James. and that is what they are trying to avoid because they don't want to lose their "paperwork" worth. they figure better to squeeze the poor and middle class for a sin that has been committed, using politicians as needed. and actually tack on more interest on them.
I couldn't blame the Greeks from wanting to escape this sick one-way ticket game, nor the Germans for not wanting to participate.
I guess financial accounting is easily manageable in the black but when in the red there is a point of un-manageability. The "IOU and Debt thrown out" you mention James is the same concept as my Financial Amnesty across the board. A system is somewhat artificial, as "value" in paper money, so the rules should be able to be bent. Maybe the political authorities can give IOUs to the banks.
Maybe if we offer them a Medal for financial sacrifice they'll be OK. or we can hang them. After all it's a clear case of me or him.
thturd:
Fine. Let Greece, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and Italy go their own way. No more loans to countries that refused the face facts of financial death.
Hello folks, the illusion is up the veil has been lifted. There is only one outcome for those countries that are involved or forced to be involved with the Federal Reserve and their fractional Reserve banking system and that is bankruptcy as that is what that system is designed to do! Those that think a vote gives the peasants a voice at the table of the elite banksters are fooling themselves. The apparent winner of the Greek elections, the New Democracy Party, will try to form a coalition and continue the austerity program instead of putting their bonds through the shredder and mailing them to Ms. Merkel. It doesn’t matter any way with the Spanish bond yields well above 7%. This runaway train has run out of track! There will be only one way to prolong the inevitable train wreck and that will be for the American taxpayer through the Fed/ECB to continue secret bailouts to the European banks. Italy will be needing a bailout in a few weeks if not days despite the B.S. the prestitutes will be spewing to try and prevent a bank run. Too late!
If you have noticed, there is no more panic in the people about our economic crisis. Why should there be? In other words, Greece is now America, where the vast majority of people also live on credit alone, and have taken up the following motto when dealing with banks: "you pretend to be solvent, we pretend to have money." One item that is going unreported is that many people in Greece are putting everything on their credit cards and have no intention to pay it back, ever! Once this is recognized Greece will revert to cash and when this happens along with the not so silent bank run going on the contraction will hit the markets like a ton of bricks.
The elephant in the room is humanity, in that the people of the planet who have woken up and make real things in the real world are no longer paying homage to the financial beast that Wall Street and the City of London, together with their Vatican brain-washers and Washington D.C. bully boys have morphed into.
At the end of the day, it is all just one big global monetary circle jerk, only this time in reverse, as the snake of fractional reserve banking has finally started to eat its own tail. With people spending money they don't have, and in debt to their eyeballs to a banking system that itself is just as insolvent, is there any wonder that nobody really panics any more over daily threats the grand reset is finally coming?
We have convinced ourselves that the road to economic prosperity is to pay off our debt with more debt. What we have had for quite some time and especially since it reared its ugly head in 2008 is a simple math problem. I don’t care which country you are if you spend more than you take in taxes you will go bankrupt. The fact is that we haven’t changed a thing since 2008 so of course we are still insolvent.
The Greek elections may empower the Bernank to implement QE3 or 4 depending on whether or not you think the currency swaps and operation twist (selling short-term debt and buying longer-term bonds) constituted QE3. In any event with economic data signaling stall speed growth for the US, it looks like the Fed will lower its current 2012 growth outlook from 2.7% to 1.8%. This and the risks from the euro area debt crisis will allow the Fed to adopt QE3/4 at the June 20 FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee). It’s been estimated the Fed could extend operation twist by another $150bn, but the expectation is that the Fed will instead allow its balance sheet to expand a further $600bn, with purchases split 40/60% between MBS (mortgage backed securities) and Treasuries. Here we go again folks the purchase of toxic MBSes that will let the banks off the hook even further and another treasury debt bailout that you and I are ultimately liable for.
The fact of the matter remains the same, the majority of the economies are bankrupt and all the Federal Reserve whether it’s their European branch or if they create a “new super bank” knows how to do is print, print, print and then print some more. This allows the bankrupt countries banksters (who are tentacles of the head that is the Fed) to create all the schemes imaginable to loan money to each other to prolong the inevitable and inevitable it is!
For example: Of the 100 billion dollar Spain bailout, Italy has to provide 20 percent of the loan. Under the deal, Italy has to give Spain the loan for 3% but has to borrow the money on the markets at 7% to do this. You can’t make this stuff up, but this is the bizarro world economics Europe and the rest of the world has succumbed to. In the immortal words of Maximus in Gladiator “are you not entertained”?
The economic collapse we are witnessing has been brought to you by your friendly Federal Reserve and their fractional reserve banking fraud. It has finally reached the point that even the sheeple can’t deny!
It's time for the Germans to let the P.I.G.S (Portugal, Italy, Greece and Spain) collapse. These freeloading countries have absolutely NO intentions of becoming responsible with Germany's money.
Trust Verify............I don't understand all I know about it.....but well said!!!!
So this left leaning article throws most of the blame at Merkel, but then says Germany has already committed most of the 900 billion bailout fund.
First, austerity has not been implemented yet. This was admitted on BBC yesterday. So how can you measure policies that have yet not been enforced?
The EU had loose membership policies that allowed members to do what they wanted. See how well that worked? Now Germany wants to clarify those rules and get them more centralized and nobody wants to give up their sovereign rights. I understand that, but then each country then needs to go back to their own currency and cultural desires, because vague membership doesn't work.
Essentially the left, which includes Obama, want lots more stimulus. Obama fought with Merkel on the size and scope of stimulus when he tried to pressure her to anti up back in 2009. She refused and Germany managed just fine. The US just got in more debt and has little to show for all we spent. We didn't even get a solid dent in the many infrastructure issues looming over our bridges, etc. On top of that Obama gave another stimulus in the way of reduced taxes for SS that later will be a huge issue for millions. NOTHING IS FREE. Obama and his socialists insist that others need to pay for those unwilling, but eventually those paying becomes too small a piece of the pie. Where is the incentive to be the provider?
Do you think Greece has a plan to grow the top line? So do you think they realize that every citizen cannot work for the government? I don't. They haven't learned a darn thing. Moral hazard is far more dangerous than any country wants to admit. If there are few consequences for bad behavior it only encourages more bad behavior. Do you hear Greeks taking responsibility for their own demise? How about Italy? How about Spain? See...that is the issue. If free money is being handed out that cultural behavior remains the status quo.
TrustVerify is dead on target. Money first and foremost is CREATED out of debt and every dollar you have in your pocket is owed elsewhere to someone else., Once again I highly suggest www.zeitgeistmovie.com and watch all 3 starting from the beginning for the entire sordid story
Roy,
Mitt has indicated he would cut taxes. I believe his theory is that by cutting taxes, companies will grow (the pie) and therefore everyone will partake in the pie, including the Gov't. In effect the total taxes taken in by the Gov't would increase.
But, somehow, I don't see this happening. If the Gov't cuts the personal tax rate for individuals, will that create demand for products? We've been hammered by wealth losses that I think more people may just save that extra cash from the tax cut. I don't know if I'm right, but that's what I think.
Thoughts?
This is what happens when the Germans and the Jewish Banks run Europe.
@#1.23 American--I do realize that the similarities are there.
Yank... et al.... wasn't Germany rebuilt and economy restored under the Marshall Plan after ww2, with billions of dollars in funding coming from the USA? Germany was broke, infrastructure destroyed and the people starving so how would it have been possible for them to rebuild on their own without help as you seem to be suggesting?
Regarding Greece.... isn't the austerity measures continuing to destroying whatever economy that they may have left? If folks do not have money to spend, the unemployment rate is about 27-30% and thousands of businesses have closed their doors and others are closing their doors, and thus more people are losing jobs, the jobless rate then continues to increase, less money is being spent as folks are unemployed, less taxes being paid, thus less revenues into the govt coffers, resulting in less services etc, and more people suffering, even as there is the call for even deeper cuts to be done by the govt, i.e. for the govt to lay off even more public sector employees which will result in even higher unemployment, less monies circulating in the economy and less tax revenues collected, thus the govt cannot service their debt, and the vicious cycle continues....?
So these severe, unending austerity measures are helping to restore and grow these economies plus create jobs so the masses can in turn support themselves, thus decreasing use of the public safety nets, re-open small mom and pop shops/ small businesses, pay taxes, replenish the govt coffers, so the govt can start repaying loans thus cutting their deficits...how?
Aren't these unrelenting austerity measures being applied, is like continuing to deny or starve a sick patient of food, fluids and medicines etc, and expecting the emaciated, weak and now dying patient to still get well, put on weight and even in such an glaringly obvious weakened state - oblivious to or willfully ignored by the treatment team- and to get up and walk home even after a surgeon- in an attempt to test the patient's resiliance, mettle and will to survive - lops off the patient's both big toes, and then all of the other toes, and then to supposedly prevent or cure possible gangrene that may occur in the distant future, keep carving away all the flesh off the bones until finally goes for broke and simply amputates the bare bones to above the knees, yet providing no physiotherapy, prostheses etc or to teach the patient to walk on nubs, and while leaving the patient without any type or other means of mobility, having gotten rid of it all or having never provided any in the first place?
Hope that these conservateaves will come to their senses -sooner rather than later- and realize that you cannot cut cut cut, whether it is the budgets, public safety nets, 'entitlement' programs, rules, regulations and oversight or the size of government as the only way to bring about a healthy economy, prosperity and jobs creation.
Hope they will also realize that continuing to make large sums of monies available at zero or so interest rate to the big financial folks while cutting/lowering their tax rate and giving refunds, subsidies etc to the rich and big biz only, and then not requiring the financial and big biz sector folks to lend these monies to the small business folks on Main Street or Rural Street or to Jane and Jim SixPack or to stop the outsourcing of jobs overseas, is not going to bring about economic growth or stability here and globally.
Hope these conservateave folks will already have realized that the masses in the middle are the main group of people who are large enough to stimulate demand for goods and services and thus through their demand for goods and services bring about increase in jobs growth as companies must then hire aditional workers to fill those demands.
So shouldn't the folks in the middle and the poor be helped or should they continue to be squeezed and austeritizied into oblivion through continued jobs losses due to more and more public employees being downsized, pink slipped, laid off, rendered jobless and while the jobs bills which would rebuild our infrastructure and thus create jobs here in the USA that cannot be outsourced overseas, are tied up in congress being fillibustered yet again by the conservateaves?
Well it appears that even the EU folks are realizing that cutting without a jobs creation/growth component is pointless, thus are supposedly to be going to review their austerity only measures as some of those other countries have now fallen back into a double dip depression/recession.
Peace.....
Merkel I'm putting pressure on you right now to tell the truth, our governments and banking systems are largely a Ponzi scam. Debt is made out of thin air in the hopes that citizens will become endentured servents trying to pay off their houses and BMW's.
Merkel if you come out today declare Europe and the United States of Debt bankrupt, you will be a hero and will make up for many of the attrocities Germany made during WWII.
Alan:
You are a DOUCHE BAG!!!!!!!!!!!
F you ObserverFFace
You tell him Observer!
For such a union to be successful there must be a centralized fiscal enforcement entity with the ability to set and maintain fiscal policy among the member sovereign nations. That is the conundrum. This should have been addressed when the union decided to go with a common currency. The US federal Reserve really sh^t in Its mess kit back then. Doesn't mean though, they can't yet fix it, if they are willing.
Austerity FAILS. Conservatism FAILS.
And along with it goes Angela Merkel.
I believe you,most of the population thinks we`re crazy. We work our lives for a bunch of numbers that were made in a seconds work!
The world is brainwashed into thinking about Paris,Lindsey,facebook and whatever new thing of the week.
We need another revolution from the working class but TV/internet is too important !
Alan is absolutely correct. All these children need to grow up. After the total collapse they will begin to realize the value of hard work and long hours again.
IMWatching #2.5: You are correct. Both are as futile as trying to turn the water at the bottom of Niagra falls, and expecting it to flow back up over the falls.
Alan is correct.
The banks and governments can just 'create' fiat currency...in the meantime, they enslave you into financial indentured servitude in your mortgages, student loans and so on and you end up paying lots back for something that is made out of thin air by a computer now.
Following the blog tonight is about as entertaining as listening to the alien people overnight.
Good business is not a ponzi scheme. Government always is a ponzi scheme i.e. it always promises more than it will ever deliver. Those at the front of the line, receive no hurt, but as the line continues, the promised return will never occur.
IM and Mac: So the answer is to do the opposite and run red ink forever? You complain that 'the other side' wants to literally derail the economy but your option is to run it off a cliff.
Neither will work.
if i was jew in germany id be heading to Israel just as soon as the economy heads south and one of the political party points in their direction and says its their fault
LOL, ImW and mac.... Seems that the only ones complain1ng about austerity not working are those that have to personally make the adjustments. Mind you, I am not saying "austerity" won't impact a countries GDP ala great britain in 2010 but to imply that it doesn't work is inane.
Many businesses used "austerity" to survive the last recession and today are starting to prosper again. The US government and many of the left have the conviction that all government programs are necessary, whereas they are not. That is why many budget items are listed as being discretionary. AKA "optional".
It is very easy to blame Greeks, Italians and so on.
Why does Germany want EU and common currency?
It is for exports! Here corporate interests are top most!
Why are there sanctions on Iranian oil and price manipulations from $40 in 2009 and $100?
Here again: it is the greed of Saudis, oil companies and their lobbyists.
It is OK for these chosen few to be highly greedy and rest are fit for austerity measures, unemployment, abuses of being lazy and so on!
By the by, there are no shortage for monies on interventions in Syria and Iran!
These invented problems and unbalance are not going to work for long!
Soros must be drooling over this. And he's destroying this country too. Research this guy and you will see.
alan_static:
Please explain who and/or what organizations will lend your money at zero percentage interest. Banks are a business, they are there to make money, not offer loans or financial transactions for free.
India has 300 languages and is quite united as a country. What's wrong with Europeans that they think they need a single language to come together.
Now its another matter if they think that doesn't make economic sense.
ObserverNYC, alan_static, you're each suspended for a day for violating #1 of the Code of Honor.
So if austerity works and the recession is over, then why am I reading numbers that there are 4 people for every job opening in the US? We are just witnessing what was promised, one world currency for a one world government. Don't think for a second that we aren't near the end of our financial rope, and will soon be dangling under austerity measures.
You tell her alan static, I'm sure she is hanging on your every word.
Expecting Germany to bail out the PIGS(Portugal, Ireland, Greece, and Spain)is like expecting Texas to bail out California and Detroit.
I believe that the 2012 state budget deficit in Texas is actually much greater than that of California: $28 billion and &16 billion, respectively.
Darn facts!
You are absolutely correct Russ - there is no 'Germany' in the US. Every single state is a cesspool of corrupt bankers and politicians empowered by childlike morons who think they can continue to spend money that they don't have and are not earning on SUV's and electronic toys.
RussH, according to Center of Budget and Policy Priorities 2012 California deficit gap is 23 billion were as Texas is 9 billion. If the Obama health care bill passes then Texas can go up by another 4.9 billion dollars in additional Medicare cost.
In 2011 California had a 17.9 billion dollar deficit were Texas had 8.9 billion.
Actually the best financial ran state is West Virginia, but they live within their means, so education and other things suffer.
Except your "facts" are wrong: 2012 budget deficits for California and Texas are $23B and $9B, respectively.
It is PIIGS.
Greeks and those who are thinking of IOUs may take training in California. They have plenty of experience on them.
Currently, Germany is dictating extreme austere measures on Greece, Italy, Spain which costs 250,000 businesses to fail in Greece alone, as banks would not lend any capital.
Alexi Tsipra and Greek Radical Left, you are an inspiration for working people and unemployed everywhere.
Someone had to say enough is enough: the bullying and abuse of workers, pensioners and the unemployed in Greece, in Spain and everywhere must end.
This is crisis caused by rising global inequality, accumulation of wealth in one end and impoverishment and indebtedness of people and states on the other end. The global sovereign and private debt simply masked for years the terrible state of this economy which does not return enough incomes to working people and states to create a healthy demand that can sustain capacity and jobs without the huge debt injections that still persist.
We need a global economy that uses advances in technology to relieve people from work - and not to produce more economic output with less people at work. We need an economy that distributes wealth and taxes the rich to fund states to provide things like education and healthcare to all people irrespective of who their parents are. The Greek people, the workers and the unemployed paid with their jobs and livelihoods to nullify a primary deficit of 25 billion in 2.5 years. They did it and 250,000 small business closed down and unemployment trebled. Now they have had enough and turn to the Left.
We are *not* going to be bullied into voting for more social destruction via austerity in Greece. The current austerity policies are not only anti-social but fiscal consolidation will be reversed if austerity persists because the economy has taken a nasty turn towards a deep depression, If the European leaders do not want to seriously revise the terms of the bailout in the face of the destruction of our country, let them cut the funding, let Greek exit occur, let them destroy Europe and let financial hell break loose.
If the Greek problem cannot be solved, one thing can be certain: no problem that will follow in Europe will ever be solved as well - not least the immediate huge repercussions of Greek exit.
Catzenjammer:
General Accounting Fund...
JaneEco:
It would appear that you cut and paste most of your post. Plus, it is certain you do not know what:
Perhaps much more research is required on your part.
Imagine, the Germans don't want to scrimp and save so that the money they have made and saved can go to bail out banks who made bad loans to Southern European countries. How could any bank in it's right mind think that economies based on Olive oil, Vegetables and Tourists could pay back the kind of money that the banks loaned them?!?
The US/British banking slant on these stories about Chancellor Merkel are just amazing; ..."time is running out for Angela Merkel"...Angela Merkel is Europe's last, best hope" (sounds like a line out of Star Wars, 'Obe, Wan Kanobi, you are our last hope'...)
The Media must be owned by the Big Banks also, because they continue to demonize Merkel, while she acts as an elected representative of the German people who want their money to stay in Germany. It would be nice to see a story that analyses the REAL cause of the crisis, the greed of banks and a monetary system that encourages people and countries that don't have to spend and buy, spend and buy, stuff they don't even need.
I wonder how many Greeks even know how to plant Vegetable gardens like their grandparents did, or how many even have space for a Vegetable garden in their new, over priced condos that they traded their little plot of land for?.
The first question facing the Euro-zone nations, and most particularly Germany and Greece, is what course of action will most quickly produce a recovery of economic growth: austerity and budget cutting by the government in Athens, or stimulus spending, financed by Germany (and other solvent nations).
I know that many on this side of the big pond are convinced that trimming the public budget (and payrolls), and cutting taxes represents the magic wand which will fix everything, like the Cinderella's Fairy Godmother turning a pumpkin and eight white mice into a carriage drawn by 8 horses. I'll just point out that even those with doctorates in economics disagree on this subject, and not everybody who advocates stimulus spending is a pointed-headed, ivory-tower theorist, that believes Santa Clause lives in Washington D.C. (or in Berlin).
Consider that after the stock market crash in 1929, the first moves of the Hoover administration was to recind tax cuts (in the name of fiscal responsibility) and raise import tariffs. Four years later the unemployment rate was at 25%.
I'll also mention that since 2008, Great Britain has also chosen the fiscal responsibility option, and their economy is lagging far behind ours, which is hard to do.
The second question facing the Eurozone nations, is what courses of action are politically feasible. Right or wrong, if you cannot enact legislation to create a stimulus spending package [or to cut government spending], then it makes no sense to attempt such a course of action.
Unfortunately, the only course of action which is universally agreed upon is to make loud rhetorical speeches, accusing the other side economic fascism, or of creeping socialism, proving my long held belief that the actions of any large group of people usually does not manifest any greater intelligence than the stupidest members of that group. So the Eurozone will continue to dither [and suffer], and the U.S. will continue to stagger through a period flat economic growth, until some miracle occurs [ which will not be either the election of Romney or the reelection of Obama].
C'est la guerre.
Quite a dilema if stimulas is applied to only maintain existing government outlays, rather than private sector growth. This philosophy makes a strong case for those loaning the money wanting some type of "austerity" if they are ever going to see any type of payback.
You are right in that the euro areas biggest weakness is that it is only one of a common currency. There is no common fiscal or political agenda. It is also hard to even say the eurozone even has an effective monetary policy set up.
D-man--did you KNOW that when the pilgrims came to the new world, their intention was to live a purely communist life, equally dividing the property of the town, and allotting equal amounts to each family, with one portion for a school, and one for a church.
Problem was, SOME people are hard workers, and others are not. Some people have numerous children, and others do not. Some people consider their 'skill' ( such as blacksmithing, or weaving cloth) to be more VALUABLE than others?
Within two years, the colony was falling apart, since no one wanted to SHARE with people they considered to be less hard working.
Once they switched to a system where everyone got rewarded by the value of their work and effort, things got better.
Except for the ones who felt entitled.
As to the question about the use of stimulus (deficit) spending, our recent track record, regarding performance, has not been good. If European stimulus spending is similar, this is not a good option.
Here are the results of the federal stimulus over the last few years:
GDP – US$
2007: 14,028.7 B
2008: 14,369.1 B
2009: 13,939.0 B
2010: 14,526.5 B
2011: 15,094.0 B
2012: 15,601.5 B (US budget)
Annual federal deficit in US$:
2008: 458.55 B
2009: 1,412.69 B
2010: 1,293.49 B
2011: 1,299.59 B
2012: 1,326.95 B (US budget)
%GDP Increase (annual):
2008: +2.43%
2009: -2.99%
2010: +4.21%
2011: +3.91%
2012: +3.36%
%GDP Stimulus (annual; federal deficit $/avg. GDP):
2008: +3.23%
2009: +9.98%
2010: +9.09%
2011: +8.77%
2012: +8.65%
%GDP Net 'Growth' (%GDP increase - %GDP Stimulus):
2008: -0.80%
2009: -12.97%
2010: -4.88%
2011: -4.86%
2012: -5.29%
The above Net GDP 'Growth' assumes zero growth from the private sector. Our stimulus 'investment'
has earned us a negative return.
MOmaid - Actually, I grew up and live in Massachusetts, and am quite familiar with the story of the Pilgrims. This reality you claim I should KNOW, is fictitious. The Pilgrims colony at Plymouth was established late in the year, and suffered through a harsh fist winter due the high incidence of diseases such as scurvy and the lateness of the season.
The fortunes of the colony did not turn upon some mythical discovery of capitalism; they came from a capitalist society. It turned upon their own group initiative and some help from the local Indians.
It may have escaped your attention, but we no longer live in a society of small, independently owned farms and businesses. Today most of us work for some large or at least moderately sized company. Whole communities are often dependent on the decisions of global corporations, which often elect to shift production out of state, or off shore.
When these things happen thousands of people are left to shift for themselves. Some may start businesses. But there is only room for so many pizza parlous and hair salons.
The only idealized communities established in the original 13 colonies, were those of the Quakers, who espoused non-violence, and that of James Oglethorpe in Georgia, whose colony was founded on the basis of unrealistic ideals and did not initially prosper.
Thanks for the history lesson.
Jay, without providing equivalent numbers for European countries, any conclusions regarding comparative success (or failure) are impossible.
I'll note in passing that the unemployment rate in Spain today is above 20%, which is about where the U.S. was in 1932. Similar issues afflict Greece, Italy and Ireland, amongst other nations, and Germany the rose in the briar patch called Europe, is at 7.1%, only a 1% better than the U.S.
I'm not claiming the stimulus spending will rescue us from our current economic state. I do claim that many of the people loudly proposing "solutions" have no idea of what will or will not work. Laissez faire capitalism certainly played a part in creating our current mess. It would seem childishly naive to expect some miracle cure from that source.
Poor Germany. I'd be pretty fed up if I were them. And who is Greece to make demands when they are so messed up and started this whole mess to begin with!
Germans should have just reduced that nation to rubble when they had the chance in WWII. The Greeks are idiots like their Italian neighbors across the Adriatic. Thing is the US is really no better than Greece anymore, and we might be worse. Before WWI there was a time where the Germans and Russians were close to forming an alliance. From what I hear that still might be in the offing. If I was German I would say "@!$%# the Euro, long live the Deutchmark!!!!!". Putin has to be laughing his ass off!!! A German Russian alliance of sorts would be devastating and would dominate Europe for sure.
Yeah, robert bruce, it is good to see somebody still has he courage and moral clarity to espouse genocidal solutions to economic problems.
Good job. Now go practice your goose-steps.
Germany's situation is simple.
They have money, everyone else that doesn't wants it.
Now the only question is how are they going to give it up.
The European countries do NOT need the Euro. Let it go. It is only 12 years old and they will each be better off without it. It was abad experiment that did not work.
True.
NOT true. I live in the EU. The Euro is excellent.
How about getting rid of the bloated EU bureaucracy for starters. This year, they had the gall to demand a large increase in their budget (while insisting on austerity budget cuts elsewhere).
Sorry Hohum, the bloated bureaucracy is part of the whole system. Can't have one without the other. As like a chain, the Euro is only as strong as its weakest link, and that is what you are seeing right now. Greece will never be able to right the ship, and the Germans will continue to be bled white to prop up a nation without anything really tangible to offer economically to be able to pay the Germans back, much less to get their economy going.
Dman: There can be no economic recovery here as long as we have a 600/650 billion merchandise trade deficit with the Far East. In order to produce wealth, we have to MAKE products here.
Also true.
Also true.
I've been saying it all along. I mean i'm fine with the far east doing manufacturing as long as our workers have something to do that adds economic value / improves the standard of living.
one thing's for sure worlwide: there is room for improvement.
Greece cannot be saved because Greece does not have an economy. It never did. They make nothing, and when you make nothing, you have that much to sell. The only thing that Greece has is tourism and that is a tough business to be in these days. Europe has to let Greece go and print lots of Euros to prop up the banks that will take a big hit when the house of cards falls down. Perception is reality. Fight that perception with a real infusion of 100 billion Euros (or whatever it takes) and worry about inflation later. Stop the bleeding first!
At this point 1 trillion or more Euros will be required to re capitalize the European banks.
I believe they make cars for rich people, but that isn't enough.
They need both austerity type measures AND both short and long term investment. Good luck with that.
NE :)--Greece's tourism is a double edged sword. I went on a tour there three years ago, and already they were rioting against Obama, and didn't seem to get it that they were making it less likely that the tour group that set up that tour would EVER go back to Greece.
Also, whenever anyone talks about how hard the Greeks work, I have to say that NOT in my experience. Stores were closed at odd hours and on odd days,, many times with no notice. Service in restaurants was poor, and especiallly considering the amount of money we were spending for pretty mediocre food.
Ironically, I had a similar experience in Spain a year later--wanted to rent a wheel chair, had a site located that 'advertised' they would deliver it right to our hotel--we reserved it, but did not make a down payment (THANK goodness!) and on arrival, NO wheel chair, NO one answered the phone, and every time we took a cab to the store, they were "out" temporarily. We ended up cabbing it instead. But by being unavailable, and not following their own advertising, they sure lost several hundred Euro's from me.
Sane,
But isn't that exactly what Merkel is trying to do? Impose austerity measures for the long-term fix and a bailout for the short-term? The only question is how much to spend now.
Noryc-2802231
Mostly correct. But I'll emphasize... short and long term investment.
They will need both short term and long term investments as their hole is so deep, and their work ethic so bad. (Serious culture shock no matter what happens)
Along with austerity measures, of course, but maybe not as strict as she wants.
We've seen what happens when austerity is emphasized over investment. Things shut down, revenue goes away, and riots ensue.
Whether this is even possible is the big question. Nobody wants to help people who don't even try to help themselves.
These BIG BOY"S just don't want to take orders from a WOMAN. Plain and simple.
You go girl
Anyone read the article on the US states' pension short fall? $1.4 trillion if an 8% reinvestment rate is assumed. This doesn't include the deficits that our counties and cities bring to the table. Read: US PIIGS!
RussH, at least the US postal service may have their pension plan fully funded before too long. Can't say the same for the local, state and federal pension plans.
yep I have. It's a fine mess, just like all the other situations.
Actually, they are predicting as high as $4.9 trillion in unfunded pension liabilities. People are arrogant and not well informed if they think that it cannot happen to us. As long as the democrats keep pushing granny off the cliff, nothing will ever get accomplished and sooner or later it will bankrupt the US, medicare, medicaid, and SSI.
Merkel is a NATO stooge..sending troops to crush Serbians and support illegal Muslim aliens from Albania in their conquest of Kosovo..and joining in an endless ground war in Afghanistan...rather then the U.S. warning the Taliban that further international terrorism will be met with neutron bombs!! Germany and Greece have much in common...the Greeks with the complicity of the "Allies" were deprived of a third of their territory after WWI when Turkey was allowed to conquer Ionia and Eastern Thrace and most recently Northern Cyprus...while Germany has been stripped of Silesia,Pomerania,Prussia and German Bohemia after WWII...but is expected to carry Europe and the Euro!! Europe must break with the self-suicidal British and their "Commonwealth" citizenship which has brought millions of Muslims and domestic terrorism to London..and the U.S. which SINCE 9-11 has imported over a million new Muslims...many with deep seated anti-Jewish and anti Christian beliefs!!! Unless Germany,France and the rest of Europe wake up soon..they will join the Anglo-Saxons in their descent to oblivion!!
NO FREE TRADE WITHOUT FULL EMPLOYMENT!!
I see more of Obama's stash (our money) going down the drain to his socialist friends.
Now I get it! Texas should step up and bail out my state, California, or is that Mexifornia. We want to continue with our social programs, give welfare to illegals, give welfare to useless people. Isn't that what Greece wants Germany to do, give, give, give.........
Greece Should be allowed to crash and burn. Greece is a socialist country, just like France, they give everything to the populace. The Greeks and French are guaranteed $$$ and they expect it to come from where? Germany!
Romney is right, "No checks to europe". Merkel is right, austerity, conservation, belt tightening. It isn't and should not be a free ride for any country. Go to work and earn it!
oh yeah, If you dont get rid of organised crime syndicates called corporations ,and returnt to real money in the hands of the citizen you are finished. I will mention that it is to late to save most people now ,but an all out crash program could save a few million, but all observable evidence says we are a dying culture on a dying planet. and the only species not in decline or dying is us so the deniers have won we die with the planet . Smart real smart. so long sucker if they notice who did it you wont like the way you go thanks horten
why would anyone continue to pay for someone else's mismanagement? Yet we continue to do it over and over again. If there are not painful consequences for people's actions, they will keep repeating the same mistakes. When is enough, enough?
A commercial union sharing the same currency should only exist between cultures with similar fiscal discipline. Southern Europe is not the same as Northern Europe. That's not to judge Southern Europe; they have their way of doing things. But there is no good basis for what they attempted and what they are trying to foolishly maintain.
Jesus Christ I hope Gwyneth Paltrow get her all her money out of Europe.
A prime example that you can't build an economy with debt. So Greece will be lent even more money to dump into their economy and the problems that got them in trouble in the first place will still exist.
The question is that when Obama reaches his debt limit and China refuses to be his sugar daddy, who is he going to get the money from to keep his government operating.
August, 2011 was just a warning that Obama and Washington have ignored. So the question becomes with all the reckless spending that they are doing, when will Obama's government shut down for real from lack of money?
Should we be funding a the development of a children's TV program in Pakistan for $20 million?
Should we be funding health care programs in Pakistan when there is the world health organization and the UN set up to do these programs.
Should we be funding the military government in Egypt when the Egyptian people don't want them to be running their government?
How many billions are being sent overseas by the Obama government that are needed here in this country?
Gweneth will save the U.S.A. She loves us.
here's a clue Greece: SPEND LESS MONEY THAN YOU TAKE IN!!!
looks like putin took obamamahahaha to the woodshed again. I am embarrassed again.
Putin is very shrewd, he will do a number on Odummer for sure.
"We want Europe, we want to cooperate," said Filippos Nikolopoulos, a sociology professor at Crete University. "But we do not want to be subjugated by Mrs. Merkel."
Like it or not Greece IS a sovereign country and if the citizens do not want to surrender that, that is their prerogative. This problem is the responsibility of those who crafted the EU in the first place, because they did not build in any mechanisms to address sovereignty, and they did not build in any mechanisms for a way for a country to exit the EU.
It is certainly Greece's right to refuse help, just as it is Germany's right to refuse to provide it.
If you want help and you come with your hat in your hands you'd better be prepared to subjugate yourself. Either that or tighten your belt and keep your pride.
Regarding the responsiblitty in the crafting of Europe as we know it: to a point. double entry accounting was created by the merchants of Venice during the Renaissance and it works worldwide. if you don't cheat the rules. Isn't that what we need, a Renaissance? Or Quickbooks or Peachtree. Not like America didn't over-borrowed with insufficient revenue streams. Fiduciary obligation and duty anyone?
Sjamie, whatever made you think happiness could exist in inanimate objects such as money?
People are overlooking the obvious. The people of Greece elected socialist politicians who created a Ponzi scheme to create retirement by age 50. There are no longer sufficient working people in Greece to pay 100% taxes to support the retirees and the national health plan. This is 7th grade algebra! Italy, Portugal, Spain, ... they are also at the verge of their Ponzi schemes busting. The EU socialist movement has destroyed Europe! A World War seems to be the obvious next activity and Germany and the UK may just conquer the rest of them into submission.
Jamie, the Right was in power in Europe and America in the years 2000s.
save the environment:
Greece's problems started before then with debt as did the USA's.
America hasn't had a balanced budget since Nixon-- and that was only for one year. The campaign line is that it is a partisan issue. The truth is it is both parties.
And the only reason we aren't in the same situation Greece is in is that unlike Greece we can print our own currency and inflate part of our debt away, but that strategy doesn't work forever.