Comments on: Too Much is Never Enough

By: cocktailhag

cocktailhag — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 19:04:59 +0000

I’ve been following the situation a lot, particularly when Goldman popped up. Yet another Shock Doctrine/Economic Hit Man job in the offing. Looks like we’ve got another “Axis of Evil” on our hands, to be taken out one by one.

By: Ché Pasa

Ché Pasa — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 18:57:58 +0000

I kind of like the Class War perspective on the Greek situation, because it is what’s really going on, yes?

Greece under European Union diktat
11 February 2010

For the first time since the introduction of its common currency, the European Union has made a country subject to its diktat. The European Commission intends to rigorously supervise the brutal austerity programme by which the Greek government plans to cut its budget deficit from 13 to 3 percent of the country’s gross domestic product within two years.

The basis for the virtual dictatorship of the EU bureaucracy is a plan submitted in January by the Greek government to the European Commission. The plan envisages an overall reduction in public expenditure of 10 percent, public service wage cuts and job cuts, a two-year increase in the retirement age, cuts in the health service, and higher taxes, including a tax surcharge on fuel.

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/feb2010/pers-f11.shtml

Spain, Portugal, Ireland, Belgium are all “next.”

All to pay off the banksters’ gambling debts.

Less jibber jabber, more guillotines! — something really stinks

By: dirigo

dirigo — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 17:12:10 +0000

And more …

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/feb/14/will-hutton-greece-euro

By: dirigo

dirigo — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 16:18:22 +0000

More on Greece: the story of a silent partner …

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/14/business/global/14debt.html?hp

By: dirigo

dirigo — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 04:20:20 +0000

I’ve been trying (without success) to get a link to a story I read earlier today about “black money” in Greece.

The hook rests on the story of a doctor who is on the level, honest enough about his care to patients (more or less), openly declaring his expenses and paying taxes, providing services on a “do no harm basis,” compared to other doctor-businessmen who play the game there – which is to take cash for surgeries while bribing tax officials who occasionally get confrontational about an outstanding liability to the national treasury.

The tone of the piece includes the feeling – the attitude – that the black market is a way of life in Greece, and should not change, regardless of the crisis with the national budget, or whether EU ministers do or do not bail the country out of its current crisis.

By: cocktailhag

cocktailhag — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 03:54:34 +0000

The “solutions” sound so familiar… is Greece saddled with as many useless rich as we are? How are they taxed? In their case, such steps may be necessary, if painful. It’s been an awfully long time since those guys had an empire to support.

By: dirigo

dirigo — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 03:41:53 +0000

By: cocktailhag

cocktailhag — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 03:37:38 +0000

How familiar all that sounds. Too bad Greece doesn’t have half of its budget going to wasteful and stupid military adventures, where some fat legitimately could be cut.

By: cocktailhag

cocktailhag — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 03:32:50 +0000

“Punishing the Successful” ought to be a rallying cry rather than a criticism, considering the new definition of “success.” Notice that Phil Knight of Nike “fame” immediately reneged on his promise to remove his ugly mug from this fair state when it passed new taxes on the rich… he had no plan B, and why would he? Plan A has worked so well for so long.

By: dirigo

dirigo — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 03:29:07 +0000

Wait!

Have a few Kalamata olives.

Don’t they grow those on the sly in California?

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/3cfeab9e-1813-11df-91d2-00144feab49a.html