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Is Greece Still A Country If Someone Else Owns Its Assets?
Submitted by John Rubino via DollarCollapse.com,
This story isn’t actually about Greece, but it begins there.
After the country went functionally bankrupt a few years ago, the solutions proposed by its creditors (mostly European banks and governments) included the impoverishment of its current citizens through cutbacks in wages and pensions, the impoverishment of its future citizens through the borrowing of even more money from the IMF and European Central Bank, and the sale of major state-owned assets to foreign companies to raise cash with which to make upcoming loan payments.
Greek voters, not surprisingly, responded by electing socialists who promised not to do any of those things. But apparently this didn’t work. Newsweek reports that the privatization program, after a brief pause, is back in high gear:
German, Russian and Chinese companies race to buy up Greek infrastructure
Foreign corporations from countries including Germany, China and Russia are lining up to buy Greek state assets as the country struggles to pay its European creditors.
The sell-off includes major parts of Greece’s infrastructure such as airports, ports, motorways and utilities., The website of the agency leading the government’s privatisation drive details a host of real estate ready to be sold off, with deals listed as either ‘in progress’, ‘rolling ahead’ or ‘completed’.
The move marks a U-turn from the ruling Left-wing Syriza party, who had previously resisted the privatisation programme imposed as part of the conditions attached to Greece’s €245bn bailout from the so-called troika of the IMF, European Central Bank (ECB) and European Commission.
Notable deals on the table as part of the privatisation drive include the purchase of 51% of Greece’s largest port to the China Ocean Shipping Company (COSCO) and a slew of airports popular with tourists to German transport company Fraport AG.
Other assets listed include the 670km Egnatia Motorway which crosses over Northern Greece, million dollar properties in New York, Washington and Belgrade, thermal springs, and and a former US Air Force base in Heraklion, Crete.
Another major sale which is pushing ahead is that 14 of Greece’s 37 regional airports which include those on popular holiday islands Kos, Mykonos and Corfu. Fraport AG, a German transport company have offered €1.2 billion for the airports’ lease and a sale is expected to go through by the end of this month. Fraport made the offer with Greek energy firm Copelouzos owned by entrepreneur Christos Copelouzos.
Another German company, Deutsche Invest Equity Partners, is in the final eight companies who have qualified for the next phase of the tender process for the acquisition of a 67% stake of Thessaloniki Port, the second largest in Greece. Taiped says that Germany, who are currently leading discussions with Greece for a new deal, are key investors. “With the airports, the most important thing after the price was having experience and Fraport had it,” she said.
Among the other seven companies also bidding for the Thessaloniki Port is the billion-dollar British P&O Steam Navigation Company, Russian train operator Russian Railways, and International Container Terminal Services, a port management company established by Filipino businessman Enrique K Razon who has a personal wealth of $5.2 billion.
Foreign investment is of course common around the world and is generally seen as a good thing. Americans mostly like it, for instance, when Japanese investors bid up shares of US companies or Chinese expats pay above asking price for Manhattan apartments. With only a few exceptions we take the money and don’t look back.
But there must be a limit, a point where foreign interests own so much of a country that they call the shots and the locals become in effect their serfs. Greece might be the test case that shows us where that point is, while helping to answer three other questions:
- How much of what’s happening today is part of a larger process in which less-developed countries are in effect tricked into borrowing unmanageable amounts of money and then looted by their creditors?
- Will Italy, Spain and Portugal suffer the same fate after Greece is fully looted?
- Are middle-class US families becoming Greece in microcosm, tricked into borrowing for college tuition, cars and houses and then forever obligated to send huge chunks of future earnings to their creditors? That the same dynamic is operating on both national and individual scales — and that the beneficiaries in each case are the same big banks — is curious indeed.
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First the Income Statement - then the Balance Sheet
Infrastructure I can understand, it’s buying Greek, or most sovereign debt for that matter, I don’t understand. Why invest in bankrupt nations, the other shoe will drop at some point.
Is Greece still a country? ~ This is, INDEED, a philosophical matter...
The ancient philosopher Basho once said...
"A flute without holes is NOT a flute...
& a donut without a hole...
is a DANISH"
Ex-pro-pri-ation
Anybody can "own" it until the guys nationalize it
Ask Putin
Pretty much all it takes to achieve "the guys nationalize it"... For the past several hundred years... is what amounts to a small committee of jews...
So frankly, I don't need to bother Putin about his opinion on this...
I'm thinking the international globalist are having a sale, as in a fire sale, before the whole shebang falls out...
First you buy the sovereign debt. When that defaults you take the underlying security which is the physical infrastructure.
Same as it ever was.
Step 1: Sell public assets to foreign corps.
Step 2: Nationalize said assets.
Step 3: Profit.
Who wouldn't want to own a country on the Med?
Problems: Pesky people, too many people asking for stuff, Health & Welfare issues to deal with, slow services & government functions
Orientation of Wealthy Entities: Own things through debt, increase power through debt, Gain Royal Titles, Control Royalty & Presidents, Extract huge wealth through Leveraged Deal of Coercion & Access provided by holding debt & property
Background: Funds & Money Flows Exist, Pensions, Rents, Leases, Port Operations, Energy Utilities, Distribution Systems, Warehouses, FIREs & Consumer Markets
Strategy: Buy up Businesses, Real Estate & Debt, then orchestrate the Write off of certain kinds of debt to renew the Economy at a time of your choosing
Hurdles: Networks of Wealthy Interests, Nepotism, Corrupt Government, Culture against paying taxes
Dynasty of a New Rothschild?
Who says you can't see into the future? America, Greece. I see a trend.
- Most
- Yes
- Yes
Democracy on layaway forever!
I predict a riot!
An IMF riot!
Confessions of an Economic Hit Man by John Perkins part 1 ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bCeOBtGDC0
meanwhile, elsewhere in the Balkans..."The Next Ukraine"
Same Nuland. Same Soros.
http://original.antiwar.com/justin/2015/05/21/the-next-ukraine/
I predict a limited ZH account. You are entertaining as a cat in a clown suit. Keep it up before the end nears. ;)
Great article at antiwar.com . I wonder why it says that Greece is immune to regime change right now. Perhaps because the government is still popular.
Duh, that's why there is a very smart Finance Minister. His name is Yanis....he puts the "hell" in Hellenic.
V for Varifoukas https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Afl9WFGJE0M
"We looted some folks."
very smart...i doubt it..if he was smart he would have not taken the job...
It won't be quite a country; it'll be more of a brand.
What Greece *ought* to do is simply leave the EU, resume printing its own money, and invite Chinese, Russian, and Brazilian investment.
Pay back its debt in drachmas.... which will have to flow back to Greece itself for the most part.
Look for investments in tech education facilities and high speed rail and ferry.
Greece's Orthodox Christianity is very similar to that of Russia.
Now, for various reasons, this might not happen, of course. But what would be better for the Greek people?
Debt slavery and IMF theft by the usual suspects and banksters, the ass fucking Ukraine's idiot neofascist cunts are getting from their Kaganite Masters, seems a poor choice.
Good thing that Ireland has a new rainbow colour Black and Tan beer. All fruits and sheep shagging blend.
When did you stop fucking your uncle, Atomizer?
Bye, bye counter. It's been nice. See above.
Yeah. That was kinda weird.
one group of farmers replaces another
the boundaries have not changed and the cattle are still there
so the definition of country still applies, last i checked
Your avatar looks like my wife's ass.
24 weeks and 2 days. Good luck Counterpunch?
Big Black | Passing Complexion
http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=6Hv5pP0MC6c
I won't retaliate over the comment above. At least you now know the origin of Atomizer. It's a fake name based on more than 24 weeks at ZH. Take that image and reconnect. I could of used a more malice song on the alum. Didn't.
then consider yourself a lucky man
:)
Cuba? Venezuela? How did foreign ownership work out? Take their money. Let them operate shit. In 15 or 20 years, nationalize it and kick their asses out.
Like I " own" my house.
Like a hostile takeover, if a company isn't allocating it's assets properly, it becomes time for someone else to try. Too bad for Greece. Try working harder next time.
Lol.
Real world calling, if you don't have an army outside those fine apartments and factories you just bought never be certain they'll still be yours if you don't play nice. Ask Repsol.
Hell no they aren't a nation. The US lost its military and they aren't a nation either. You have NATO that is a nation-lie military and the corporations that control NATO are the government of all its member states. NATO is not a democracy it is run by TPP and other trade agreements by the globalists.
You have to get the control of the nukes away from the banksters and then you can have nations and democracies and things like that again.
Or, you can arrest Lloyd Blankfein.
Yanis Varoufakis is the smartest man in the EU today, they should Thank Him...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A3uNIgDmqwI
I don't know much about Greece, but wait until we Americans wake up one day and discover how little of the American country we still own.
"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered..." -- Maybe Jefferson.
Liberty is a demand. Tyranny is submission.
Remember, the Bundy Ranch standoff against the DC US' tyranny was caused by the DC US trying to take their property and sell (lease) it off with other land to the Chinese.
The author is right about debt. The privately controlled fractional banking system where TBTJ institutions get the seigniorage rather than the public coffers (Treasury) is a control fraud. Private money creation. Public inflation. And, they use the proceeds to fund their Chosen (AMZN, NFLX, etc) with limitless cash while engineering distress for everyone else (traditional retailers force to RIF). TBTJ got $16T bailout and then collected QE/IOER while starving the real economy.
It is a control frauds people. And they use their fraudulent "wealth" to buy the system. Convert TBTJ mark to unicorn equity and nearly infinite duration cash from financing consumption ponzis (NFLX, AMZN, etc) to gold and demand delivery.
We all need to reach out by supporting a cashless system. We must support apple payment system.
Without new advancement technology, we can get hacked by DC, ISIS or those Sunni Iraqis. We better all just comply. It's a scary time.
/sarc
The Federal Reserve Uncle Janet cannot figure out why ZIRP isn't working. The EU beta plan of NIRP is in testing mode. IMF and Uncle Janet will run a stress test on systematic risk.
/LOL.
So, they should let the UN be their pimp?
Happening in Greece and the UK. Coming to Amerika!
I'm so sick of this "they tricked us" meme with regard to loans.
First off, this is an entire country run by the allegedly smartest and most experienced people in the country, not some college kid getting his first Discover Card in the mail.
Secondly, the assets being privatized are not being dug up and shipped to some other nation. Instead, these money-losing dinosaurs are about to become part of Greece's new tax base instead of an unlimitied drain. Yes, it is entirely possible that the small-time leeches in public service may find themselves having to show up for work and take home a smaller paycheck for doing the same job as before.
Finally, what is the alternative to running an endless deficit at someone else's expense?
I would have a lot of sympathy for Greece if they were willing to accept a fall in their standard of living in return for telling their creditors to take a hike. Since they aren't interested in incurring any cost or making any further effort at reform, the alternative is simply to encounter a sudden, catastrophic national crisis that will leave no alternative but the rediscovery of financial virtue all at once rather than gradually.
"First off, this is an entire country run by the allegedly smartest and most experienced people in the country, not some college kid getting his first Discover Card in the mail."
Hahahaha.
Oh, they are smart and experienced alright....
Except this brand of supposed reform doesn't actually solve the problem, it exacerbates it. Can you not even register this? What is the fckin point of accepting less for yourself if that only means you will have to accept even less for yourself in the future?
Last I checked, there wasn't any sort of natural disaster anywhere in Greece, or the EU for that matter. Production is still skyhigh, factories produce more with less, so on and so forth. Why the fuck should people live with less?
Welcome to Vancouver, "Canada"
TPP preview
It may or may not be a trick aimed at an unwitting populace, but it is most certainly part of some pin striped pimp's game plan.
You can take that to the bank and print it.
Is US Still A Country If Someone Else Owns Its Assets?
For tax purposes, yes. Same for Greece and every other country.
Financialization is like creating nuclear weapons, once created, eventually, there is no way in hell they will not use them.....
The good thing about being a country is that foreign owned assets can be taxed to such an extent that the foreigner no longer wishes to own the (former) asset.
The power to tax is the power to destroy. McCulloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. 316 (1819)
No it just becomes a Broke Corporation obviously.
Same question could and should be asked of the USA or if you rather, the former USA.
The Greeks WILL leave the EU if forced to pay, SO THAT THEY CAN TAX 'THESE FORGEIN INVESTORS' in a manner that EU law forids.
Were the Greeks tricked? From what I have read, the Greek government was a willing participant in the fraud & borrowing to get into the EU. I agree that they now don't like the result of the original fraudulent deal, but that doesn't mean that they were tricked.
"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children wake up homeless on the continent their Fathers conquered...I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies... The issuing power should be taken from the banks and restored to the people, to whom it properly belongs." Thomas Jefferson