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Papandreou Warns Of Catastrophic Consequences To Greece If He Is Deposed, Calls For Vague Constitutional Reform Referendum
Papandreou's latest attempt to buy his failed regime some time, after last week reneging on his promise to step down (which certainly did not buy him any friends), was a speech to Parliament in which he told Greece the obvious "We had three choices.First, bankruptcy, second, leaving the euro, the third, helping the support mechanism that we created... The consequences of a violent bankruptcy or exit
from the euro would be immediately catastrophic for households, the
banks, and the country's credibility." Nothing new there: the same Mutually Assured Destruction rant that Americans have grown to love so much over the past 3 years. More importantly the Papster called for a referendum on constitutional reform in the fall, naturally without any actual details or specifics. The speech launched the 3 day parliamentary debate on the vote of confidence in the government which is due on Tuesday at around 5pm EDT. In addition, G-Pap also called for a consensus at national level, something which will be very difficult to achieve with ongoing MP defections from the ruling PASOK. The PM noted that the Greek problems can not be solved by banishing the International Monetary Fund and the Troika. Paradoxically the truth is precisely the opposite: the Greek problem stem from the Troika's involvement, and as long as they are there, Greece will merely get more and more encumbered with emergency loans until very soon 100% of government revenue goes to pay off western banks. But when it the last time a member of a ruling party actually told his electorate the truth?
More from Kathimerini:
"I asked the renewal of confidence in the government because the country is in a critical condition. I also seek national unity on the basis of certain assumptions: debt and deficits are a national problem and raise a question of guardianship. This dependence which certainly protects us from bankruptcy, "said Mr Papandreou and continued:
"Let's understand that the future path of out nation is our responsibility. I want to ask for the Vote of Confidence not in order to find a scapegoat [as in G-Pap] but in order to undertake action and so that Greece is not dependant on Lending Powers."
Among other things, the prime minister said the three options in the country to escape from the economic crisis.
"We had three choices. First, bankruptcy, second, leaving the euro, the third, helping the support mechanism that we created. "
"The real problem the country is the unequal distribution of burdens in society. And we need a national agreement to change, "commented elsewhere while he also reported the creation of a new constitution, and in conducting a referendum autumn.
Needless to say there will be no referendum. Greece, and certainly its government, will be nowhere in the same format come this fall, as they are currently.
Prepare for some serious FX volatility in the next 72 hours (which will only get exponentially worse if indeed hedge funds suddenly realize they are prohibited from trading FX).
Full G-Pap speech, in which he asks for a vote of confidence 17:55 in:
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This is the usual "Dead man walking" dance. The real issue is whether the Greek people are protesting at benefit / wage service cuts, or in my view the more serious and insidious EU stuffing the Greeks with more debt (sorry, bailouts) to protect European banks for a little while longer. Greece is toast and all the market knows it.
I've come around to the thinking that while the Greek protestors are disappointed that their benefits will be cut, the real reason they're protesting is to get the IMF and other world banking syndicates the hell out of their country. Their government won't do it, so they're taking to the streets.
Mainstream media likes to paint a picture of the populace as lazy, fat, incompetent, stupid, and demanding of benefits. It also paints the picture of bankers as doing God's work. They will always show one protestor holding a sign that says: "We want our benefits." They never show the other thousand banners stating: "IMF go away."
IMF go away indeed.
"until very soon 100% of government revenue goes to pay off western banks"
This is an AIG style bank bailout all over again.
Note to the Greeks: Accept nothing less than default, default, default.
"they're protesting is to get the IMF and other world banking syndicates the hell out of their country"
that's right
IMF = international FEDeral Reserve
and has "obtained" funds from US taxpayers (without consent/knowledge of 99.99% of them) with specific intentions to "bail out" foreign nations (2010, Senator Jim DeMint who attempted to halt this theft; of course American sheeple, as always, are absof'inglutely clueless; otherwise they would be taking to the streets along with Greeks, Icelanders, Spanish, Czechs, etc.)
http://dailycaller.com/2010/05/06/u-s-taxpayers-are-helping-finance-gree...
Papa-Doc's speech is a crock of shit. Throw all those bums out. The Greeks should elect German politicians if they want to restore their economy. Better yet, let the Germans appoint a Regent to serve as German Governor of Greece. The Greeks are far too dumb to rule themselves.
politicians, regents, and the rest are the same dirtbags the world around. However, the one benefit of a german regent (gauleiter, why don't we call him) would be that at least greeks will no longer have any shred of delusion left that the regime is on their side.
Noone would've believed in the last years of the 20th century, that Greek affairs were being watched from the timeless worlds of space. Noone could've dreamed that Greece was being scrutinized as someone with a microscope studies creatures that swarm and multiply in a drop of water. Few men even considered the possibility of an outright economic hitman operation akin to what was already practice in South America. And yet, across the gulf of space, minds immesurably superior to the Greek regarded them islands with envious eyes... and slowly, and surely, they drew their plans against them.
The same old "Too Big To Fail" rant! Show me HOW and WHEN Greece will ever be able to service their debts PLUS the new bailout loans! This seriously is not going to happen. Right now Europe is simply trying to save the Bankers for another month or two and deal with the fallout then. A drowning man clutches at straws to stay afloat another second or two. This is what Greece and Europe are doing. Their shining stars "The Banks" must be saved or ruin will spread across Europe like "The Black Death" in the middle ages.
Correct....this is the last and only thing these a-holes, worldwide, are able to come up with in order to get what they want.
We heard it about the bail out(s), obammacare and now about the debt ceiling............all pure BS......
G-Pap is now G-Paul (Greek Paulson)
'Too big to fail' is so 2008.
'Just die already' is in vogue.
The real speech should be:
"Friends, countryman, Athenians,
I come to you not with a solution to our economic problems, as well you know we are all FUCKED.
No, the question I want to democratically pose to you today is not that whether we are FUCKED, but whether we are FUCKED, or GANG RAPED in every way by a morading hord of EU banker desperately seeking to save their own souls"
The Greeks, and the pols they elect are equally to blame, the entitlement society is unsustainable. As we see in America, no one votes against their own interest if they receive a government check. But that's been the plan/agenda all along. Time for all to revisit the Marxist Cloward-Piven Strategy to bring a country to its knees. Greece and Ireland are the templates; North America is on the list.
That is the problem, there is an expectation of cradle to grave entitlement, people want 'government' to provide health, unemployment, child care, single mothers care, and pensions, while at the same time the balance has tipped so 47% of the people (USA) pay no federal taxes. Once you cross the place where more people are net benefit recipients over net payers it simply becomes the case of 2 wolves and one sheep voting what to have for dinner.
The entitlement society is our problem, and until self reliance becomes the norm the problem is here.
Prepare the Holy Hand Grenade!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DAd6gerQoAc&feature=fvst
Icelanders told the bankers to "piss off", the result? A healing economy back in growth and able to get credit in the bond markets. Obviously not being in the EURO is a major plus. Also telling bankers to go to hell also pays off. Screw the Banks!
They didn't just tell them to piss off ... they're throwing them in jail.
In 2007, Iceland had 30% debt to GDP, and a budget surplus. They had a private banking sector that was taking crazy risks speculating in foreign markets, buying UK retailers, lending to all sorts of oligarchs, massively over leveraged, heavily reliant on foreign creditors and depositors. The collapse of the banks came when the foreign creditors pulled the plug and the Icelandic government refused to guarantee the full deposits and senior bonds. There was NO SOVEREIGN DEFAULT, and the domestic economy was not heavily leveraged, nor was the government reliant on the banking sector. Although the deposit guarantees pushed the debt to GDP to 90% and the refusal of foreign lenders to lend to the sovereign required the IMF to step in, the Icelandic economy, which is largely fishing and agriculture, carried on. The welfare system in Iceland may be generous, but they have high taxation to fund it.
Greece, on the other hand, overspends and undertaxes and the functioning of the economy is totally dependent on government largesse and the ability of the government to fund itself cheaply. Once this has gone, the deficit grows quickly out of control, as they seem incapable of taxing their citizens or even competing in the export markets.
So, great, Greece should go ahead and tell creditors to fuck off. Where they will get the funds to pay the 30% of the workforce employed by the nanny state is going to be interesting and amusing.
go long on tar and feathers
Your missing the differences between icelands productive economy, with a leveraged banking problem, to Greece's situation where the population has been living from a false credit driven 'boom'. They borrowed from tomorrow to live above their means today, and tomorrow is now comming.
Greeks will have to suffer a nasty snap back revision to the mean in living standards, retiring in the 50's and low working hours per week does not sustain the lifestyles and government programs (employees) the voters desire.
The average age at exit of workforce in Greece: 61.7. Higher than Germany, The Netherlands, and all those hard working Europeans. That's from Eurostat 2005 data:
http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/ewco/studies/tn0702028s/tn0702028s_5.htm
I'm surprised so many people here take the mass media myths and regurgitate it.
I won't even get into that many of these people continue to work off the books.
Or how the age 53 retirees-- the ones the mass media has used to convince people that Greek laziness has brought them catastrophe-- walk away with half pensions and benefits.
Oh, and those "low working hours"--another myth.
http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=ANHRS
Roughly 700 more hours per year than the Germans and 500 more than the U.K.
This is all about saving the ECB, The Papmeister is being fed his lines, TPTB in Frankfurt are shitting themselves in case they have to print away to save the Euro, this goes against all the holier than thou preaching that the Germans have been spouting for 3 years now.
inm certain that the europeans will print, but i don't know how they are going to get rround the german constitution
Oh please..will someone finally pull the plug on these people..this is torture watching, and trying to trade through, this Greek tragedy.
From Alex Andreou: "10 mins of your time please, to read what is really happening in Greece & redress misinformation."
(It's worth reading)
http://sturdyblog.wordpress.com/2011/06/18/democracy-vs-mythology-the-ba...
++++++++++ Excellent post!
Disobey.
TFTL, excellent.
@Negro
Thanks for posting.
As much as i despise and distrust the MSM I wasn't questioning some of the basic bullshit they were pushing about Greece. This was a great read and a reminder of how thick the propangda is here in the "freeworld".
Indeed, Greece is like the pretty girl in high-school that some in-crowd guy chose as a girl-friend, for the obvious reasons. At first she feels flattered and fulfilled and goes along, doing more and more to stay part of the in-crowd, close to them. Sooner or later it often happens that she starts to accept outright abuse in a desperate attempt to remain close to the in-crowd. Well, Greece, just how low are you willing to sink to remain at least a favored tramp of the euro core? Tough question. Makes you wonder how bad your morals were when they first picked you up, eh?
Was he not going to just step down? 99% of politicians are constant double speakers so how can anyone take them seriously. Sounds like Bailout 2.0 for Greece is off. Greece needs their tourism industry. I know 3 people personally who have either cancelled their trips or their children's college trips because of the unrest.
Greece needs to back out of the Euro and default and return to the Drachma. The money will flow back, the gridlock of the infrastructure will subside and prosperity will return. The EU is so frightened of this occuring that they will inevitably hand Greece more money with no strings attached and spread the payments out over 30 years if necessary just to keep up the illusion that attempting to tie 16 nations to one currency only a few decades removed from 2 world wars is impossible.
Competing currencies is the solution not 3 world currencies and inevitably the attempt to create 1.
inevitably hand Greece more money with no strings attached
Um, no, that is exactly what the IMF and ECB won't do. They never give money as a gift. It's always in the form of an additional loan. That's the whole purpose behind the insistence that participation by private lenders must be "voluntary". If they were to give the Greeks money with no strings attached the game would really be up because Ireland, Portugal, etc. etc. would instantly default on their loans.
Im not disagreeing with you. I said all along especially last week the IMF wants no part unless they have some form of collateral or assurances of indentured servants. Honestly I do not think the ECB will have a choice inevitably. They will coerce private banks domestically and in the EU along with governments to give what they can and simply print the rest if necessary just to keep the "viability" of the Euro intact.
If Greece will not consent to any further austerity and the only choice is a default which hangs the bond holders if will be their only option after a series of bluffs. Greece has them by the balls. If Greece defaults then eventually others will see the example as an option in Ireland and Portugal which is why the Euro is doomed to fail eventually. You are correct though if they give them the money with NSA then others will follow suit and the ECB can pretend to have a repayment plan drawn out over decades if necessary.
It is all about pretend. They are between a rock and a hard place. If it comes to a secret bailout they consider that favorable to a collapse of balance sheets of the international banks , Ireland/Portugal default and assured Euro failure.
They will not call it a "gift" in my opinion but of course a loan that can never be repaid IMO.
Also Dubai is about to come into focus in the coming years and it will be interesting to see if Abu Dhabi steps up to the plate again to bail them out.
I agree that Greece has them by the balls. If only their political leaders would realize it. What they should do would be something along the lines of "give us a grant of money that will let us pay your interest in the short term, and we promise that once our economy gets on its feet we'll restart paying back our loans". Then just rinse and repeat every six months. You are correct that as time goes on, the increase in negative consequences of Greek default become worse and worse for the IMF/ECB and less and less for Greece itself
Exactly the IOU of all IOU's. And if Greece gets one then all of the nations get one because there is really no other option. The other thing I fear is something similar to a loan drawn out over many years as you say and the "pay us when you have it" with the intention of letting tensions subside and installing a government in coming years that will ram this additional austerity down the Greeks throats. In the interim the elites will have learned a lesson and begin to assemble a EU army to quell civil unrest from protestors.
Scary stuff.
Once I warned my boss at work of the catastrophic consequences of not giving me a raise and a promotion.
It's the same argument as the debt limit increase debate here in the USA.
Economic disaster will happen if you don't increase the debt limit so we can spend even more of your (taxpayers) money.
This guy is obviously in need of Lexa-Papandreou
There will be a Greece bailout and a US debt ceiling increase. All the talk, threats, chest-thumping, hand wringing, warning and complaining is a smoke screen just to keep up polite and "mature" appearances. In a giant Ponzi scheme as we now have, there is no choice: either you keep it going or it implodes. At every step the Ponzi needs to expand just to tread water. Doubling soon becomes quadrupling which then morphs to logs, exponents, irrational integers and eventually into theoretical and imaginary numbers. But keeping up those appearances has now become the modus operandi of the political class: impress people and make friends by decrying how awful the debt situation is in this country and how we should stamp out things that need stamping out because we're sick and tired of people who are sick and tired and we shall never, ever, never, read our lips ever admit we love the debt that allows us to stay smug and cynical full-time at cocktail parties and in front of the tube.
Aw now wait a minute.
Wow... that was so smooth you could be the next Obama Bin Lyin'... Better yet, the next Weiner!!!
Humphrey Bogart as Sam Spade
The Maltese Falcon
..
The Greeks need to keep their heads and their middle fingers up. They could be the rallying cry for everyone else that is down the line to take a shit kicking from the TPTB. They have drawn the line and I, for one, support them in their effort to take their country back. Let the banksters eat fiat.
Let the great reset begin.
Disobey
Hahahaha! Grave consequences for who?
The citizens of Greece would like things to go on - as they have been (something for nothing/tax dodging/etc.) - but plainly that isn't going to happen and so the folks are pissed off. However - eventually - reality sets in and people will do what they need to do to keep living...
The politicians - well - some of them are sensing that there is more on the line than just their careers (and government pensions/inside deals/etc.) You just never know about those volatile southern Europeans...
The Euro-banks - they will suffer the fate that they so richly deserve - at least I sincerely hope that they do.
I love it when politicians try to scare really pissed off citizens...
Papa IS a rolling Bilderberger....
Where ever he laid his hat was his home.....
Papa was a rolling stone
Papa gets his orders striagt from the CFR in the US and the Bilderberg scum...like Kissinger and the Boyzzz
G-Pap is hardly an honest broker in the Greek crisis, having worked closely with Goldman Sachs early on in fraudulent arrangements to involve Greece and is now obviously indebted to deliver to the international bankers nothing less than the infrastructure of his country.
Papandreou is president of the Socialist International, a combination of socialist governments around the world whose stated goal includes working toward a world government.
He is now delivering up his country.
Yep... the smell of squid is all over this thing...
Next I will have to hear the whinny, nasally, Morey Amsterdam soundin', fucktard cue ball...
Lloyd Blankdick...
And I don't wanna hear that...
Here's how "it's goin' down." First an overview of disabled vet's relationship with Tom Keene: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pWS8Mg-JWSg&feature=player_detailpage
Second: the current status of the United State's policy vis a vis "economic growth" (primer: Wile E Coyote is the Administration and the Road Runner is elusive "growth thingy.") http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j4JbWb5xVEU&feature=player_detailpage
third: Europe's actual plan for dealing with Greece:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=djZFHTa6TfA&feature=player_detailpage
fourth: the reaction of Goldman Sachs upon realizing it was responsible for the whole thing: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z-7IEPTAoTg&feature=player_detailpage
G-Pap: We have four choices...
1. Tell the banks to go F*** themselves for giving us subprime loans
2. Tell the EU to go F*** themselves for allowing the banks to give us subprime loans
3. Print our own money, get our freedom back, and tighten all of our belts so we can snap back and recover from this.
4. All of the above.
"The Greeks should elect German politicians if they want to restore their economy. Better yet, let the Germans appoint a Regent to serve as German Governor of Greece. The Greeks are far too dumb to rule themselves."
A bit harsh but not far from the truth. The Greek have ONE thing to learn and it's the "I'm part of a community" mentality. The common Greek mentality is (from top to bottom) "steal lie and rip thy neighbour off! Who cares about tomorrow!".
But tomorrow has become today...
Hahaha
but...but...but...
G-Pap probably was promised by the NWO wankers to be elected Prime Minister and forever on easy street following his attend-dunce at the 2005 Bilderberg Meeting.
Parasites
https://secure.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/wiki/George_Papandreou
http://publicintelligence.net/2005-bilderberg-meeting-participant-list/
Just click over to the Europe 2020 random think tank site, see below. It reminds me of a John Cleese Skit. "How To Irritate People". A classic scene of a central Banker.. Oops, meant car salesman.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9igQ18GIqvc
FEAR, the love to promote fear. Of coarse it will be the end of the world if you say no to those banks, the end of their world that is. I say people of the world look at Iceland and tell the banks to screw themselves. Better yet put out the call if it all falls apart and people suffer we will make sure the financial leaders and political leaders of the world suffer more
RE : http://sturdyblog.wordpress.com/2011/06/18/democracy-vs-mythology-the-ba... and the "media mythology" part.
Sure the Greek work 2120 hours a year. But have you Amercian ZH-es heard about the "double coat" policy. If you work in the public sector you arrive early at your first job put your coat on the coat hanger then... leave to your second real job (the one where you really errr... "work"). Later in the afternoon you go back to the 1st job to get your piece of clothing. Double coat as in "double pay".
So I suspect some Greek "work" even more than 2120 hours a year. Could be 4240 or even 6360 hrs a year ;-)
"in
Tyler, do you have the statistics that show how much greek ( and for that matter spanish-portugal-ireland ) debt is held by the Euro banks? I can't find the great chart in the NYT which shows the cross holdings, this article http://www.economist.com/node/18560535?fsrc=rss talks about the smaller German banks and the Corporate risk from default.
How much capital do these banks need to cover a default? Is the ECB going to step in like the FED and rescue them by printing Euros? How much greek debt does the FED have vis-a-vie the IMF? Have to wait to find out what is in the other Asset category I guess.
It does seem impossible for these governments to cut and and or grow their way back to a a balanced budget so that they can start to actually restructure their debt.
I guess my question is do these banks have enough Tier 1 capital to absorb loses on their sovereign debt portfolios? I believe the answer is no, just trying to get some more definitive answers. 0 hedge for 1yr and 43 weeks. Thxs
Has Hank Paulson been seen in Greece lately? Seems G-Pap has been given the Hank Paulson play book and ordered to use it by his handlers.
G-Pap is hereby re-dubbed G-Paul (the Greek Paulson)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELTxDLN-hSE
Greek insolvency will be like wart removal.
The patient won't die (unlike the dire warnings) and the world will move on to the next financial "crisis".
The EU would be a lot stronger if it would stick to its' core principles, however those seem to change daily.
however, EU does stick to its core princiPALs -i.e. banksters (in that respect, it has no choice)
I don't buy the "Greece has got them by the balls arguement"
When you need money desperately, everyone can see all your cards. The game here is to post-pone outright default until EU banks are well clear. Once this point is reached, the button will get pressed, make no doubt about it.
No one in the EU cares about Greece, everyone in the EU cares about the EU banks / Euro.
Greece mistakes are a) Votes choosing the wrong polical policies b) Allowing it to go on so long.
Its bad, but they are not the only countries to do this. Most of the Western world has done this to some extent. However, it seems Greece has done this the most, while having the least.
It might be useful to examine just what happens IN GREECE if they default.
Their deficit must immediately go to zero because no one will lend them money.
So . . . who dies? People WILL die. A great many disabled people funded by benefits will clearly die. How many?
G-Pap reminds me of my som who wanted a raise at work. He stolled into the Boss's office and told him if he was not given a promotion (and substantial raise) the company would suffer serious losses without his skills and leadership.
That was two months ago....my son is still looking for a job after being shown the door.
G-Pap deserves the Exit also...imho. He has sold his people.
Anybody here who'd like to send some suggestions to the IMF?
:-)
BTW:
Uganda is with the Greeks on this:
http://freeuganda.com/?p=482
some nice pictures too!
Default is going to happen. Thats baked in the cake. The questions are:
a) WHAT kind of default
b) WHEN does default crystalise
c) HOW MUCH is in scope for default
d) WHO gets paid of whats left
e) WHERE does the fall out hit next
Unfortunately, its a bit late for the people are going to die speech. Its already too late - sorry to say.
Again, I point the the fact that the seeds of this crisis are to do with people - that is the people in charge. We have had a VALUES crisis in those who lead us. This has manifest in a financial crisis globally.
Greek people are done Pandering to you Papandreou. Change your diaper and get the fuck out of dodge!
I'm for calling Papandreou's bluff... Can the worthless, treasonous, British MI-6 whore...
Suck it up GPAP you treasonous bitch! Funny how you bitch and moan when the tightrope between your masters and the Greek people is getting harder and harder to walk!
Do the world a favor and call the prosecutors to arrest the right person: YOU!
The long story of the Greek Automobile Industry and how it was gradually destroyed by the Europeans.
Motors, bearings, gearboxes, carrosseries, frames, electronics parts and and accessories all made by Greece (some of them handmade even)
http://www.istorikathemata.com/2010/11/blog-post_11.html
Shhh you're destroying the 'Greeks are lazy, stupid, thieving and worthless' meme.
slewie translation: the jet is not quite loaded, yet...
Oh how the mighty have fallen
What the banksters know and fear is that when Greece defaults, the sun will still rise tomorrow.
At some point the realization will dawn on humanity that the many being beholden to the few for some imaginary money is total bullshit.
Attention Greeks.
Hang Gpap.
And post pics!
I am really starting to look forward to the inevitable American revolution. I'm starting to feel like what I imagine a parent who has had a child murdered might feel like, though in this case it is the country that could have offered my children a decent life that has been killed. I need closure. Dead bankers will do just fine: Try 'em for their crimes and hang 'en high and publically.
I blame OJ.
It's over, he is in hock to the banks and that is why he is fighting so hard for them to be like that.
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