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Paulson's Bazooka Reemerges: Greek Finance Minister Wants EU To Put "Loaded Gun" On Table To Protect Him From Speculators

Tyler Durden's picture




 

This is getting plain moronic. First, in July 2008 we were hearing all sorts of idiocy, spewed by Paulson about some loaded bazooka that the Treasury had but would never use. Well, the Treasury not only ended up having to use it but it turned out to be the biggest dud in the history of capitalism, Paulson' tendentious blatherings in his publicistic memoir notwithstanding. And now we have the Greeks using precisely the same line. Today in an interview before CNBC, Greek Finance Minister G-Pap II (not to be confused with G-Pap JR, the Prime Minister, or G-Pap 0, the guy who started it all) said he was looking to the EU to put a "loaded gun on the table to defend Greece's financial markets." We were expecting a laugh,  a cackle, a snicker, or some indication the man was joking. He wasn't. We all recall that the system started collapsing about a month after the famous Paulson loaded weapon reference. We expect the same this time.

From G-Pap II: "We want basically a loaded gun to be on the table. We hope we will never have to use it. However, it is important for the stability of the euro zone that such a mechanism is there."

Next: the line up of anyone punching a Sov CDS trade ticket before a Greek firing squad. Literally.

 

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Tue, 03/16/2010 - 13:21 | 267386 SDRII
SDRII's picture

Obviously the next request is to turn around, hands above head and spread the legs

Tue, 03/16/2010 - 13:22 | 267390 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

"This is getting plain moronic."

You ain't seen nothing yet.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJmBPCYt5LY

 

Tue, 03/16/2010 - 13:26 | 267399 sysin3
sysin3's picture

Boy should be careful which way that weapon is pointed.

Tue, 03/16/2010 - 13:46 | 267409 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

"Is that a gun in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?"

Mae West

Tue, 03/16/2010 - 13:27 | 267403 Internet Tough Guy
Internet Tough Guy's picture

If you give him a loaded gun, he will blow his own head off.

I can live with that.

Tue, 03/16/2010 - 13:31 | 267410 bchbum
bchbum's picture

I think loaded gun is just the politically correct word for what it really is:  a nuclear bomb.

Tue, 03/16/2010 - 13:43 | 267420 Fritz
Fritz's picture

The louder they get, the more desperate they sound.

Tue, 03/16/2010 - 13:44 | 267422 Fish Gone Bad
Fish Gone Bad's picture

How exactly does one get a Greece gun? 

Tue, 03/16/2010 - 13:45 | 267424 buzzsaw99
buzzsaw99's picture

Bazooka G-Pap. LMFAO!!

Tue, 03/16/2010 - 13:59 | 267447 chet
chet's picture

"We hope we will never have to use it."

Yeah right.  They'd grab it and use it immediately.

Tue, 03/16/2010 - 14:01 | 267452 BlackBeard
BlackBeard's picture

So...back to the "it's everyone else's fault except mine" play eh?

Tue, 03/16/2010 - 14:02 | 267460 sheeple
sheeple's picture

If they need a loaded gun for Greece, they should take the hadron collider to Cali in coming months ... raining Higgs

Tue, 03/16/2010 - 15:33 | 267639 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

I was wondering if someone would ever show up here as a "sheeple". Thanks for the laugh.

Regarding the search for the Higgs, CERN will be running at half power for a year, then it will be shut down for a year for repairs. It will come back up in 2012, just in time for the event of our civilization, the coming collective awakening.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8556621.stm

Tue, 03/16/2010 - 15:42 | 267650 sheeple
sheeple's picture

Hi CD, 2012 Mayan Calendar ... WE'RE FREAKING DOOMED (WFD)!!

Tue, 03/16/2010 - 18:34 | 267850 Cognitive Dissonance
Cognitive Dissonance's picture

LOL

Actually the Mayan calender says nothing of the sort. The calender is based upon a 26,000+ cycle broken into 5 smaller cycles, of which the one we're in at this point ends on Dec 21, 2012. Since the next cycle doesn't measure "time" in the same manner as the cycle we are currently in, the Mayans didn't see the need to provide a measuring tool (their calender) when it didn't apply. 

Nowhere in any of their writings do they talk about end of world or global catastrophe. So it has to make you wonder why the media is pushing such an easily refutable and incorrect story onto the public. We are entering the age of enlightenment, would doesn't bode well for the powers-that be. Maybe that's why they are telling ghost stories to a dumbed down population.

Wed, 03/17/2010 - 04:42 | 268154 Pondmaster
Pondmaster's picture

I thought the Age of Enlightenment was ushered in in the late 60's - Age of Aguarius - mystic crystal fog - look where those nuts have brought us .

Tue, 03/16/2010 - 14:22 | 267496 Mercury
Mercury's picture

You can't fight math with a gun.

Besides, there are no guns in Europe

or babies or faith or first principals or will to survive.

Hey...like they say in the cafe - Everyone is just a bag of chemicals that react, has some fun and then ceases to react...remember?

Goodnight Europe.

Tue, 03/16/2010 - 14:56 | 267569 Leo Kolivakis
Leo Kolivakis's picture

Greek Finance Minister and his European counterparts aren't as stupid as you think.

Tue, 03/16/2010 - 14:59 | 267573 Fyodor Does DF Ski
Fyodor Does DF Ski's picture

Get ready for a round of good old fashioned Russian Roulette aimed at those Grecian Formula drenched heads of state! Do or dye, baby...

Tue, 03/16/2010 - 15:12 | 267598 MarketTruth
MarketTruth's picture

Naa, they are just like the thief in the movie The Italian Job. Remember the one who robbed the robbers and then bought the same things the other dreamed of buying. yeah, that robber got taken away at the end of the movie by very angry ?Armenians? (probably for long torture and eventual death).

Greece, like the robber in the movie, has zero imagination so are trying the exact same thing the USA swindlers tried. The exception being is that the USA has a weak and spineless (plus bought and sold) elected official that can be counted on during moment of 'fear' to do the wrong thing for the people. Greece, on the other hand, can not count on other countries being spineless and weak.

A shorter version: The Matrix "There is no bazooka".

Tue, 03/16/2010 - 15:20 | 267615 carbonmutant
carbonmutant's picture

Immature markets should not be allowed to play with loaded weapons.

Tue, 03/16/2010 - 16:11 | 267695 George the baby...
George the baby crusher's picture

Nice piece of ironical writing Tyler.  You could make money from you're writing.  Just remind me, what was money again?

Tue, 03/16/2010 - 16:28 | 267714 THE DORK OF CORK
THE DORK OF CORK's picture

Ok there is gun on the table along with the cash - lets make it interesting - 1 bullet , 2 bullets no to hell with it lets make it three.

Just remember there are consequences to such actions - the New York and London boys think this is just a game about money but it is beginning to be more then just a game - if it is about survival different rules apply.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lqakCa-MysE

Tue, 03/16/2010 - 17:58 | 267805 Budd Fox
Budd Fox's picture

Somehow Dork, you may be right....if the money changers think they can continue without any consequence and what happens outside doesn't matter...and the same applies to politicians of the calibre of the Greek and , for what matter, Americans...there will be blood.

That's why they beef up laws that allow them detention without trials and free shooting rules of engagement....there will be blood, but if we are not prepared, it will be ours.

Tue, 03/16/2010 - 17:57 | 267802 bokapita
bokapita's picture

"Just remember there are consequences to such actions - the New York and London boys think this is just a game about money but it is beginning to be more then just a game - if it is about survival different rules apply."

This is so, so true. I think you have made a point that has eluded many people; namely that we are on the brink of something that the modern western politician and beaurocrat has never been educated to know of, and the modern finance 'professional' too vision-limited to understand: The turn events take when people are confronted by the reality of medium fast economic decline.

Tue, 03/16/2010 - 20:07 | 267903 THE DORK OF CORK
THE DORK OF CORK's picture

Here is what I don't understand about the attack on Government debt - it is more then debt it is base money - every citizens money. The debt may be owned abroad but it is the Systems money.(although in the Euro area this is not strictly the case as it is possible for a Government to default and remain within the Euro - You wonder if the ECB have thought of this already - I bet)

The financial world is now much more complicated then lets say 19th century finance where you had gold either government owned or personally owned and Government debt with some venture capital . So if there was a problem with government debt they were likely to default has there were no backstops (I believe the Rothschild's lost some serious money in mid 19th century Spain for example)

Now there is more private debt then Government debt yet Government debt is taking the heat for private mistakes and fiscal hawks blame Governments for their stupidity (quite possible)

But speaking from a Irish Experience and other peripheral countries of Europe I imagine the Governments were to some extent passengers in this disaster as most of the money creation was inside commercial banks.

The Irish debt load is mainly private in character ,also Spain and to a  lesser extent Greece - London and New York are gaming this system because they are the greatest holders of this private debt.

If you realise that all money is debt then London and New York  are greatly benefited by the reduction in Government debt as a economy at any given time can have only a certain amount of Money/debt and therefore they can increase their margin and percentage amount of interest.

This is a lot deeper then upholding the concept of free markets , this is about power.

Tue, 03/16/2010 - 21:40 | 267977 Mercury
Mercury's picture

If a private enterprise goes bankrupt the interested parties step into their pre-determined positions in line and a court or other authority sorts through the bankrupt entity's assets and liabilities and satisfies the interested parties according to relative seniority as best it can with what there is.

In a sovereign default none of the above will happen or has ever happened.  That's why things get ugly fast in the markets when a nation starts stumbling and turning blue in the face.

Tue, 03/16/2010 - 21:51 | 267988 THE DORK OF CORK
THE DORK OF CORK's picture

Sure Mercury but for the banks a orderly haircut did not happen - they transferred their crap over to  sovereign debt and the same banks /hedge funds are now attacking government debt for fiscal irresponsibility - beautiful.

They certainly deserve their bonuses for such brazen piracy

Tue, 03/16/2010 - 22:57 | 268035 Mercury
Mercury's picture

Right...moral hazard and all that but at least some debt holders who at one time had recourse but now have no recourse are pissed...plus there's blood in the water.

Both the mantra of The Economist: "Capital goes where it's welcome and stays where it's well treated" and ZH's "a de-levering of society at all levels is both necessary and inevitable" apply here.

Wed, 03/17/2010 - 17:36 | 268672 lucasjackson
lucasjackson's picture

The Grecians will riot feebly in the streets for dramatic effect until they are rescued by other EU members.  Anyone want in to the pool on how long before individual states in the US riot??? I have California in July for a hundie.

Wed, 04/14/2010 - 09:18 | 299820 mark456
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