Magda Hassan Wrote:I wonder what the chances are that the military will be paid to step in before the election results can be finalised?

Lauren Johnson Wrote:

Magda Hassan Wrote:I wonder what the chances are that the military will be paid to step in before the election results can be finalised?

That would be a Golden Dawn, would it not?

Greek euro exit looms as banks crumble

Quote:Ha Ha Ha: Greece Figured It Out!

I like it!

Quote:Mr. Tsipras says that, if push comes to shove, Greece can manage on its own. By not paying its debts, the country will have enough cash to pay its workers and retirees, he says. He also proposes cuts in defense spending, cracking down on waste and corruption, and tackling widespread tax evasion by the rich.

"Whatever we do, things will be difficult. But it will also be difficult at the same time for all of Europe because the euro will collapse" if Greece's funding is cut off, says Mr. Tsipras. He adds that both sides should step back "before we reach that point" and find a "European solution."

Now you're screwed Christine Lagarde, Merkel and the various ECB wonks. They figured it out over in Greece.

You have crap cards and Tsipras has a Royal Straight Flush.

Now he may be lying, but if he's not he knows that he can pay the workers and retirees -- if he walks on the debt payments.

This means he holds the trump hand. He can operate internally and tell you all to stuff it. And assuming he's telling the truth and really has run the numbers, the ECB, Merkel and the rest of the Eurozone is stuffed on trying to force anything down Greece's throat.

He also wants to nationalize the banking system. Now, if he goes further and forces a "One Dollar of Capital" standard for all banks inside Greece, then the game-playing stops but so does the systemic risk -- inside Greece.

Now what's left for the rest of Europe? They've got a problem -- a big problem. By nationalizing the banking system he flushes the private parties that would otherwise play "hand grenade" with the economy and government.

This doesn't mean that Syriza won't screw it up, of course. He might.

But it leaves the door open to solve the problem and stabilize the banking and monetary system in Greece going forward.

It's about damn time.

Quote:Trichet Declares War

This is an open declaration of war folks:

Quote:Europe could strengthen its monetary union by giving European politicians the power to declare a sovereign state bankrupt and take over its fiscal policy, the former head of the European Central Bank said on Thursday in unveiling a bold proposal to salvage the euro.

That's an open declaration of war and should be responded to in kind.

There is no power superior to that of the budget within a nation. None.

If other nations and firms don't like a government's expression of their sovereign power in the form of their budget they have the right to refuse to lend to it. But there is no claim one can make on a sovereign's budget on a forcible basis -- that is functionally identical to an invasion.

Trichet has just invited a shooting war in Europe, and I predict that if this sort of meme spreads he's going to get exactly that.

Quote:It's payback time: don't expect sympathy Lagarde to Greeks

Take responsibility and stop trying to avoid taxes, International Monetary Fund chief tells Athens

Larry Elliott and Decca Aitkenhead

guardian.co.uk, Friday 25 May 2012 20.04 BST
The International Monetary Fund has ratcheted up the pressure on crisis-hit Greece after its managing director, Christine Lagarde, said she has more sympathy for children deprived of decent schooling in sub-Saharan Africa than for many of those facing poverty in Athens.

In an uncompromising interview with the Guardian, Lagarde insists it is payback time for Greece and makes it clear that the IMF has no intention of softening the terms of the country's austerity package.

Using some of the bluntest language of the two-and-a-half-year debt crisis, she says Greek parents have to take responsibility if their children are being affected by spending cuts. "Parents have to pay their tax," she says.

Greece, which has seen its economy shrink by a fifth since the recession began, has been told to cut wages, pensions and public spending in return for financial help from the IMF, the European Union and the European Central Bank.

Asked whether she is able to block out of her mind the mothers unable to get access to midwives or patients unable to obtain life-saving drugs, Lagarde replies: "I think more of the little kids from a school in a little village in Niger who get teaching two hours a day, sharing one chair for three of them, and who are very keen to get an education. I have them in my mind all the time. Because I think they need even more help than the people in Athens."

Lagarde, predicting that the debt crisis has yet to run its course, adds: "Do you know what? As far as Athens is concerned, I also think about all those people who are trying to escape tax all the time. All these people in Greece who are trying to escape tax." She says she thinks "equally" about Greeks deprived of public services and Greek citizens not paying their tax.

"I think they should also help themselves collectively." Asked how, she replies: "By all paying their tax."

Asked if she is essentially saying to the Greeks and others in Europe that they have had a nice time and it is now payback time, she responds: "That's right."

Quote:Christine LaGarde, The Troika, And Greece


I wouldn't travel to Greece if I was Ms. LaGarde; she might find herself on the receiving end of the sort of animosity she has displayed for the Greek people.....

Quote:"I think they should also help themselves collectively," Ms Lagarde said.

She added: "I think more of the little kids from a school in a little village in Niger who get teaching two hours a day, sharing one chair for three of them, and who are very keen to get an education. I have them in my mind all the time.

"Because I think they need even more help than the people in Athens."

And when asked if she was saying to the Greeks and other European nations that they had had a nice time and it was now payback time, Ms Lagarde responded: "That's right."

She also reiterated that the IMF had no intention of softening the terms of Greece's austerity package.

I agree -- they should help themselves.

They should start by placing all the bonds they issued and which LaGarde's IMF, along with the other banksters, lent upon into the paper shredder and send the bits to the ECB and LaGarde via FedEx. After all every one of these institutions was part and parcel of increasing credit into their economy at a greater rate than GDP, and thus was fully aware they were effectively counterfeiting Euros into the Greek economy.

That this action was legal doesn't change the moral depravity of the act, nor does it excuse those who committed it from the consequences.

The consequence, incidentally, is that you lose your money as you don't get repaid, and the bogus nature of your claimed "asset valuations" and lack of capital behind your positions is exposed.

This detonates your firm (and maybe your central bank too.) Awwwww... cry me a river.

None of this changes the fact that Greece cannot spend more in its government than it taxes. That has to change, and it has to change right now.

But it is manifestly unjust, and should be corrected through whatever means are necessary, that only the Greeks should bear that consequence while the banksters who knew damn well what they were doing get away with being willing and active co-conspirators.

This nonsense will not stop until someone stands up to these jackals and points out that they're not going to get paid as the lender was fully aware they were emitting unbacked credit into the system with no mathematical possibility of repayment. That is, they were willingly and intentionally promulgating a Ponzi Scheme.

The other nations in Europe should likewise erect the middle finger, simultaneously having the necessary debate with their citizens over the services that they want government to provide and implement the tax structure necessary to do so.

Greece, in a word, needs to reply quite simply "No" and make clear that it is explicitly authorizing its citizens and military to resist by whatever means are appropriate and necessary should any part of the "Troika", or any bank associated with same, attempt to tamper with the nation's internal affairs.

Enough is enough.