Taking from Peter to pay Peter

~ Greek Finance Min. Venizelos-- one disgusting man; inside & out

Greece...

We know, we know.. we promised no more Greece unless it defaulted in a disorderly fashion or something from that nation affected people beyond its borders.

Still, when we came across this information, we had to pass it along,  if for no other reason to show how utterly disgusting the financial elites and especially the Greek leaders are.

By now, Greece should have defaulted-- it should have been disorderly, chaotic and sent massive ripples through the financial world.  It should have resulted in the first genuine loss that banks, investors and other financial rats felt in 40 months since Lehman Bros. collapsed.

But like all things political, outcomes were manipulated through closed door deals, secret handshakes and outright chicanery.  It was able to blackmail its investors into accepting bond swaps resulting in 70% losses, and keep the can-a-kicking... Greece saved!

But how did Greece come up with the money needed to pay off its bondholders for the remaining 30%?  Did it increase its tax revenue miraculously or expand its global exports?

Of course not..

Greece's Finance Minister Venizelos, who was the one who negotiated the bond swap, paid the difference by secretly removing 70% of major hospital, utility and University bank account funds to pay the bondholders.  And did this without asking the depositors of the Treasury accounts.

No biggie.

From HealthNews (Greece):

"Many hospitals, university directors and other organizations were astonished to discover that the government was responsible for the disappearance of 70% of the money interest-bearing accounts maintained with the Bank of Greece. These accounts had nothing to do with bonds, interest bearing bank accounts was who "entered" grants and "coming out" drawings for the costs of organizations.

"The "bondholders" are thus spared the haircut, while robbed hundreds of millions of euros (one source estimates 1.4 billion) from hospitals, universities and other organizations needed to completely maintain the basic function."

Greece's leadership is total filth.. but understand- they are not the only nation who does deceptive practices to hurt its people for the sake of banking and financial interests.  We in the US do it too.. its called Social Security.

Back in the early 1980s, President Reagan signed a law to increase Soc. Sec taxes so that there'd always be a surplus of funds for the elderly and those who paid into the system.  Of course, very quickly, Reagan, like Every single President since him, uses the Soc Sec fund as a sorta 'borrow now, pay later'-like slush fund.  Really no different than the "Give a penny, Take a penny" jar you find at your local convenience store.

Of course Reagan, the 2 Bushes, Clinton & Obama don't simply take mere pennies and they conveniently forget to put the $$ back later on. Sometimes they even help to quicken the draining of the Soc Sec fund by giving payroll tax breaks so people will have a couple extra dollars in their pockets now vs 10x the amount later on in exchange for feeling good about the current incumbent.

This is why even though we as a nation pay more in Soc Sec taxes than 30 years ago, the fund is running a deficit.   The excuse that more and more baby boomers are retiring is simply  a way to deflect blame from the politicians onto you..

'If you 55-70yr olds would die quicker, there'd be more revenue for others'

But we digress..

The economy-- both domestically and globally is in bad shape.  And as long as baddies can delve into their magic bag of tricks and schemes, and delay problem-solving until after elections, we're all going to suffer in our quality of living, even as we're told things are better during every step of our downfall.