Random Musings- Greece, America & apathy

~ A pie chart breakdown of where Greece's bailout money goes.  Only 19 cents on the dollar, or rather euro actually go back to the Grecian economy i.e. its populace.

No one respects deadlines anymore...

Frustrating... just frustrating..

The big news out of Greece over the weekend was that its leaders had just 24 hours to work out a deal with its EU, ECB & IMF creditors that would complete the selling of their nation and souls to their creditors.

Only 24 hours for Greece's leaders to agree to "the minimum wage be cut to less than 600 euros ($790) a month ($4.94/hr) and that at least one holiday allowance, the so-called 13th and 14th wages, be abolished, and pensions paid by supplementary funds should be cut by 35 percent" (AP)

Just 24 hours to agree to this harsh austerity or Default.

And what happens??   Talks extended into Monday...

Not sure what there really is to talk about.  The choices are really like an evil person saying "We will cut your left and right arm off as well as your right foot, or we will kill you outright"   How much deliberation does one need on a choice like that?  When does the pride instinct kick in?

We've learned and observed many lessons over the past 39 months.  Among them is that few to no world leader truly cares about its people, especially in a crisis, and when the choice is between reality and can-kicking, everyone including the common people want it kicked.  Happily so.

Also learned that few people in the US have really been affected so far by this recession.  Most of the people hurt and harmed were those in such bad shape from policies of the last 30 years that even in economic boom, they'd be going bankrupt, foreclosed upon and all that.  Very few others have.

You walk in most malls.. still see it bustling.. still see plenty of vapid, anti-social, technology addicted teenage morons with their headphone buds in ears and texting away without a care in the world.. Still see plenty of consumers consuming with credit cards swiping and registers cha-chinging all the live long day.. Still see people emotionally oblivious to everything outside their immediate family and more immediate needs.

The biggest lesson learned with few exceptions is that in this whole global economy narrative of crumbling banks, bailouts, recession and supposed "recovery", from politicians to investors to everyday people, there really is no one to cheer or root for.  And so few heroes.

Politicians are corrupt, bankers/financiers are evil, Investors are vermin and most everyday people won't fight back in any meaningful way.  Could be apathy or a fear that god-forbid, all their 'stuff' will be taken from them.  And the youth- they have the most cause to fight since every 18yr old college student without a silver spoon or teat to suckle upon, becomes a debt slave via student loans before legally allowed to take their first drink.  And that debt never, ever, Ever go away... Even in a bankruptcy.

In other parts of the world, youth fight back, or at least try to.

Angry Youths Attack House Of Greek President Papoulias; Hurl Rocks, Molotov Cocktails (AP) -- "About 30- 50 Greek youths arrived by motorbike and on foot just after 8 p.m, hurled a Molotov cocktail, rocks and paint at the house but stopped short of attacking the two guards at the President’s house"

In America, they sit outside in parks for days and weeks on end sipping coffee from thermoses while listening to their ipods and texting nothing important while mainstream America ignores them.

Either we've become That lazy and detached a nation, or those suffering the most still believe so much in the whole Left-Right political canard that no one wants to embarrass or hurt Obama's chances at re-election with a sincere dust-up.   I can't imagine such restraint if McCain/Palin were running the nation with exact same economic policies or even say a Bush third-term.

So, deadline extended in Greece one more day.  We still assume all will be worked out to the powerful banking interests' will...  or who knows, be extended another day.

Greece is the nation that invented democracy.   Would be nice if they be less like Athens and more like Sparta.

Peter Paying Paul (then repaying Peter)...

St Paul:  "Could I have that dollar you owe me?"
St Peter:  Of course..but can I borrow $2"

I wanted to take a moment to explain as clearly as possible why the world is in such trouble financially, and do so in a way that doesn't involve background knowledge in finance or many confusing statistics.

The world is economically in bad straits because we are all nations of borrowers. Every nation.  No one has any surplus and yet, we are borrowing from each other. We borrow from banks too but that's a dupe.  Most banks globally are zombie, meaning they're so much in the red that without money being poured into their coffers from nations, they couldn't survive.   Funny isn't it.. nations give banks free money so they won't collapse, then borrow it back at interest or lend to other nations that can't ever repay even the interest.

 And if not for all this and pretend currency created on paper and pretend monetary value placed upon it, the global financial community would have destroyed civilization 3 decades ago.

The reason I pinpoint it to the 1980s because most people do not realize this but in 1983, the Dow hit 1,000 for the first time.  Wall St had been in existence since Revolutionary War days (1770s) and yet never reached 1000 until 1983.  And what is it today?  Just about 13,000.  Each thousand represents $1 trillion dollars so in simple math, in a span of only 24 years, $12 trillion of pretend wealth was created.

Washington: "I much prefer my statue face something more honorable..."

Let's follow the sovereign economic food chain..  Greece needs money.  So does the rest of the PIIGS nations. And Eastern Europe.  So they borrow from the rest of the EU.   Who puts up most of the funding to cover those losses?   Germany.  And what was Germany doing today?


Merkel Looking for Help During Visit to China (Spiegel) -- "German Chancellor Angela Merkel needs help... Germany wants China to make a concrete pledge to invest in the euro bailout fund"

So basically all of Europe are beggars in one form or another.

Now Greece gets its bailouts from a "troika"- the EU, the ECB and the IMF which is pretty much US run and financed though it always has a puppet European leader so it gives the appearance of being international.  So 17.4% of all IMF loans and bailouts around the world come from US taxpayers.

And is the US a creditor nation?  Goodness No!  lol.. Not for many years..  We owe others more than $15 trillion dollars.  And yet the US has the audacity and arrogance to lend to others as if we're in the black.   And who do we owe money to?  Many creditors but namely, the Chinese.

And how do the Chinese lend to everyone?  They're really in an economic housing asset bubble, much like the US was prior to 2007. They had their citizenry build lots n' lots of homes, namely to keep the populace busy.  Problem is, most of the populace can't afford to rent or buy the homes that were built, so they're empty.. just like in Nevada, Florida and Arizona.

But China controls its media even better than the US so details of how weak their economy is, hasn't been truly known yet.  So as a ruse of prosperity, they lend money they don't really have to the rest of the other debtor nations and dramatically devaluing their currency so they can make up the losses via trade policy.

Everyone owes everyone.  This is why Investors are treated like royalty and national economic policies around the world cater to their needs; why Everyone tries to soothe the markets.  The Rats are the only source of  fresh money left in the big game of ponzi.

In a biblical sense, you could easy say the global economies survive by borrowing from "Peter" to pay "Paul" and no nation has the guts to dare call anyone out to repay their full tab. Banks and nations are all grateful simply if debtors can meet their monthly payments

And that's the sad state of the world no one talks about.