"Adolf Merkel": Presenting The Greek Gratitude For The 50% Debt Haircut
One would think that considering that their debt, or rather about 60% of it, was haircut over the past 2 days, the Greeks would be grateful to Germany who not only orchestrated this transaction over the vocal protests of her French vertically challenged counterpart, but effectively has pledged a substantial portion of German GDP to preserve not only the Greek welfare state but soon that of all the other European countries. One would be wrong.
The Mail reports:
Greeks angry at the fate of the euro are comparing the German government with the Nazis who occupied the country in the Second World War.
Newspaper cartoons have presented modern-day German officials dressed in Nazi uniform, and a street poster depicts Chancellor Angela Merkel dressed as an officer in Hitler’s regime accompanied with the words: ‘Public nuisance.’
She wears a swastika armband bearing the EU stars logo on the outside.
The backlash has been provoked by Germany’s role in driving through painful measures to stop Greece’s debt crisis from spiralling out of control
It gets worse:
Opposition parties blasted the landmark agreement, with conservatives warning it condemned the country to ‘nine more years of collapse and poverty’.
But it is the fury of ordinary Greeks which is raising eyebrows.
Greek government officials who agreed to the belt-tightening moves have been portrayed in cartoons giving the Nazi ‘Sieg Heil’ salute.
Greek finance minister Evangelos Venizelos is a regular target in the liberal daily Eleftherotypia and is often shown in cartoons making a Nazi salute.
One shows a German soldier watching over Venizelos as he barks at a Greek citizen to pay more taxes.
In another cartoon, a young Greek answers a German soldier asking why there were no names on a list of Greece’s newly formed labour reserve, saying: ‘They are empty as you exterminated the Communists, the Jews, the homosexuals, the gipsies and the crazies last time.’
And the most ominous sign is that we already are seeing animosity between ordinary people on both sides of the table, people who are part of the proverbial 99%, and who have nothing to do with the disgusting arrangements at the top whose only purpose is to enrich the already uber-rich.
And German visitors flocking to ancient tourist sites are being met with a hostile welcome from some Greeks.
If that last one isn't very concerning, re-read it enough times until it is.
And while geographical proximity between Greece and Germany may be a redeeming feature to what are already preambles to outright aggression, when will geography no longer matter: when the Greek "experiment" moves to Portugal? To Belgium? To France? Is it time to start plant more trees in the Ardennes forest?
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sick
Greece should be shown the door and told to fuck off
This should play GREAT on the streets of Berlin
No good deed goes unpunished!
See what happens when you keep giving in to socialists? They think they deserve every free lunch, and they go nuts at you if you dare take it away from them.
Oo..
Women in uniform are so.. compelling.
We need a Chairman Maobama picture
I've been comparing her to Adolf for over a year now, so this is a proud moment for me.
Whatever next, Senor Berlusconi dressed up as Mussolini?
And all just in time for the Christmas party season.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2054405/EU-summit-del-Desperate-...
Europe is holding out the begging bowl to China in an effort to keep the rescue package for the single currency alive.
In a clear sign of how the balance of world power has tipped towards the East, EU leaders hope China can be persuaded to hand over huge sums to help bail out the eurozone.
In a further embarrassment, it emerged that the one trillion euro bailout fund announced in the early hours of yesterday does not really exist.
So China will print more to buy the freshly printed from Europe, while printing more to buy the freshly printed from the US.....
Hmmmmm......something is wrong here. But what?
"Come on in China, the (nearly boiling) water is fine!" said the Frog.
China.... LOL... the savior.
Great article Tyler.
Great comments to ALL above, who ALL got a green!
One must understand the German mentality: Germans love to be loved regardless what.
Remember ALL major german political parties have voted to keep EU going and Greece getting their welfare checks forever.
IMHO, Greece deserved their bailout money and 50%-debt cut. After all, only Greece people went on general stricks and were fighting their police. It is vital to fight for your rights!
Nobody loves Germans. And that's ok. We know that too.
Ich lieb dich immer noch so sehr...
It is better to be respected (and solvent) than loved any day.
This German is OVER Love. Love is a Fiat Currency now.
why would they need to print? couldn't they just use their $1 Trillion+ USD reserves to buy Euro bonds?
well, with every USD they sell to buy EUR, they would lower the value of the remaining USD in their hands.
giant fx operations like that always create more imbalance... like when all passengers in a small ship move to the same side.
thats why every central bank likes to create its own ammunition.
they need some form of independence / counterweight
hahahas ... this is easily the funniest show on the internet ... no matter how silly is gets ... can always get sillier ... it never disappoints ... just love it ... everyday it gets better.
Didn't a young prince do this first?
Verdammt sie wurde enttarnt !!!
Merkle is quite tame compare to Hillary though.
Both rank right up there with Janet Reno.
Janet Napolitano, however, takes first place in my opinion. If I had even one tenth the artistic ability of certain other denizens of ZH I would create an image of Janet, eye sockets darkened, with official emblems on the lapels. Both would mimic the old SS motif, looking a bit like lightning bolts. On one side would be "See Something" and on the other side would be "Say Something". Gotta go...I hear someone knocking on my door.
they're all a buncha dykes
Maybe Barney Frank can lend him a riding crop. The long-stemmed rose is way too effeminant for our virile Barry.
Removed.
Adolf Merkel? Why are people constantly insulting my Fuhrer Hitler. Hitler knew how to handle the finances of Germany and got straight to the root of the financial problem and eliminating it.
Nice to see another liberty lover on ZH
And quite mad too. Think it thinks like it's fellow man?
Certainly acts like a typical Canadian, eh?
Ah yes. The good old mass murder strategy to jumpstart an economy. Makes all your troubles go away.
Pssst, you have to say Defence from E.T.s. Paul Krugman is polite, be nice and introduce politically correct "defence " - from Islamist, Chinese, Liberals and ZeroHedgers.
In the first place - defence from the Ayatollah Ron Paul ....
Mass murder could potentially provide plenty of shovel ready jobs. That'd be good for the economy.
-Adolf Hitler
Adolf didn't need gold. He had Prescott Bush and Union National Bank.
For those who want further info.
http://www.amazon.com/Conjuring-Hitler-Guido-Giacomo-Preparata/dp/074532...
Wow.
Knew how to handle Greece too. Took a couple days to conquer it and steal all their gold.
Hitler knew how to handle the finances of Germany
In finance and economics Hitler was an idiot. The German finance ministry, however, were keen at borrowing and printing.
And when Revenues were a little light, then stealing, plundering and invading were always available.
Yes, but notice size of underware.
"Oo.. Women in uniform are so.. compelling."
Har! Yeah, I'll bet she's a real "nazi" girl in bed.
The Greeks just realized that their pensions had to take the haircut not the banks. wait till this gets out they will be burning German tourists in the streets
BTW: The direct translation of the poster is "Public Danger" not merely a nuisance. I guess google translate is biased.
Greece got something on their independence day. Symbolism over substance all over again. The Greeks will be milking the cow (Merkel) until she runs out of hard working German people's milk.
Warning to Germans. Vote her out. Time to revolt and return to the deutschmark.
Depends on what Porsch their driving, Cayenne or King Tiger -- sorry, meant Leopard.
@dlmaniac et aliae
See what happens if you just keep green arrowing the wind-up blowhards like duhlmaniac who spout stupid rote ? They think they deserve the accolades, even though they don't actually know their assholes from a tea towel holder, and they'll go nutz if you present them with reality and try to take away their self delusions:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/may/27/debt-deficit-oecd-countries-data
I want to know what it is going to take to trigger a credit event for CDS on US bonds
Greece should just pull an Iceland
"I want to know what it is going to take to trigger a credit event for CDS on US bonds."
We have passed through the looking glass. Now there are no defaults, no triggers, no consequences. The rules of the game clearly state -- in invisible ink -- that the rules may change at any moment to suit the needs of the plutocratic cartel.
Onward through the fog!
'Now there are no defaults, no triggers, no consequences. The rules of the game clearly state -- in invisible ink -- that the rules may change at any moment to suit the needs of the plutocratic cartel.'
The only way to win is not to play.
hey, G_F!
pulling an iceland is very probably the best thing to do, but the dynamics are so different b/c iceland wasn't in the EU
the banksters have done some pretty advanced work in and around greece, it seems, right from the time greece joined the euro in 2001
this is dated today: Sarkozy said Greece should have not joined the Euro in 2001: “it was not ready” — MercoPress
friday afternoon humor, BiCheZ!
if the US fails on its debt, the pope's new bank will bail out the world and charge it to The Trinity
trust me!
I always appreciate the P_Irate's POV. You're dead right slewie: an outright Greek default would rip out the skeevy little hearts of sociopathic banksters and their pocketed elites, right smartly too.
Actually, the beginning of this thread gives a nice impression of how gullible the majority of ZHers are, if only you appeal to their obsessions...... dozens of people getting 40+ votes, who have a trackrecord of spewing desinformation...... with no second thought at all what this may mean, when all the regular sockpuppets come out in force and agree with you....
Just a minority didn't blindly fall for it, when the right buttons are pushed by the tylers and sockpuppets together.
So, as for that myth of the majority of ZHers being so much more clever? Well, some are - as for the rest: They depend on the tylers for guidance.
there is much iron in tyler's words of guidance
Sure, there is most of the time, i fully agree. Else, i wouldn't be reading ZH so often.
Still - i may be a little utopic here..... i would have thought that a good "mentor" ought to be used, to oneself become a more independent and skilled thinker - instead of the opposite: oneself just becoming the sheep of a better leader. Sure, one may end up doing the right thing more often - but this then will simply be because of the choosen leader, not because of one's own skills.
To give a counterexample: There are 2 people who grew very close to me, and i to them. We by now are so aligned, that one can just start describing an idea, and the others can quickly complete the rest. However, we never trust each others skills blindly - we constantly check each others thoughts, and this way not only synergetically improve, but also avoid a lot of mistakes - because whenever one comes up with an idea, there will be three verifying it.
greatest.movie.ever.
He's Full Metal Comanche
Yeah, exactly. Germany gave them more time to dabble in the failed keynesian experiment without being forced to do the TRUE austerity measures, and this is the reponse.
Doesn't matter. Austerity is coming, regardless. This is all about pissing off as many people as possible in order to divert attention, aka Divide-and-Conquer 101.
After all, how can you create a world war without angering all 'sides' first?
Most unfortunately, correct. Over the last few years we all first talked about BKs and equities ... then we talked about money and financial banditry ... than we talked of riots and growing police states ... then we talked about defaults and overthrows ... then we talked about currency wars ... and then trade war .... and now everyone realizes WWIII is a distinct possibility ... and famine ... and mass murder ... and
When everyone is angry, desperate, afraid, hungry, dissappointed, disillusioned and divided ... it can all keep unfolding.
thanks, you two just cured my hiccups: I'll just go grab a fresh pair of underwear and I'll be right back.
"Courage my friend(s), it's not too late to make the world a better place."-T Douglas
And we heard green shoots and better than expected... then we heard easing and financial support... then we heard end of recession and summer of recovery... the we heard national security and death of enemies... then we heard growth of democracy and it helps our exports... then we heard made in america and going green... and now everyone realizes its a global economy and we're all intertwined... and china's still growing... and you can take a space flight... and
When everyone is angry, desperate, afraid, hungry, disillusioned and divided... it can get better if we are positive, patient, and remember to vote the party line.
Weird how it's opposite.
Ok, if things are so good, you just try buying a suit that can fit an iPhone properly into it's inside pocket!
you cant! ... see! ... what'd I say!? ... world is coming to an end, right? ... am I right? ... LOL
Here is how the conversation went....
Merkel to Papandreou : You Greeks get your shit together!
Papandreou to Merkel : "What the fuck do you mean?"
Merkel: Yes you know, the money thing - get with the program
Papandreou : "Fuck your program you started it!"
Merkel: We did not
Papandreou: "yes you did you invaded Poland, ask them how that went ...now Fuck off!"
Funny - Greeks just slit their own throats and this is supposed to show Germans "good deeds". W/ Greek pensions holding about 30% of Greek debt...now taking a 50% haircut means these plans are so underfunded as to be a complete joke. But of course the ECB Greek debt takes no haircut. And ECB and sovereigns will take care of their banks...but Greece is being encouraged to destroy itself on the way up and now on the way down.
Greek citizens should be very angry at those who played them and at themselves for fogetting that democracy only works w/ involvement and shared sacrifice (not that I give a fuck)...and American citizens should take a glimpse at their likely future. The parallels are all there (uncompetitive economy w/ huge trade imbalance, prohibitive wages, unfundable liabilities, massive debt to GDP, dysfunctional gov only representing the lobbyists and greatest among us, blah blah)...primary difference is the ability to print worth less and less fiat. We will use this amazing tool as a weapon to destroy ourselves and the world economy.
Pension funds are not underfunded.
They overpromised.
Aligning the funds with the promises is not possible. It is now time to reset the promises to reality.
Sorry, you can't retire at 50, you can't inflate your earnings in the last year before retirement so that retirement pays more than working... the paradigm must change.
The politicians/unions/sheeple/etc have now been exposed for their robbery and now must pay the price. Haircuts all around!
Average greek retirement age: 62, BEFORE the recent cuts.
Go fuck yourself, slavedriver.
And the Germans slave away until 65 (soon to be 67), just so the greeks can retire earlier.
Which is just another reason why it is best for everyone (except international bankers) if the Greeks just pull an Iceland. (Upon reflection, that might be bad for average Germans: Greece defaults and leaves the Euro, Euro appreciates against it's fiaty peers like a house on fire, German exports become prohibitively expensive to shrinking economies... Same thing happens if Germany leaves the Euro and reintroduces the Mark; Just My Humble Conjecture)
Oh, and if you read on further, prepare to be shown up; you and all the other ignorants who gave you a green triangle for being dead wrong.
Thanks for coming out.
You know, everyone keeps on about accepting the 'mark' of the beast and all that concerning the end times....hmmm... where's there's smoke as they say. I'm German by the way so I am being non-chalant here, not inferring my country is beastly, just adding fun to this wildfire that's burning.
Oh, wow, i am SO happy to have have my retirement age moved higher BECAUSE OF THE EURO, that i now instead of blaming the EMU, i resort to being ENVIOUS that this bullshit hasn't been done to the full extend to greeks.
Wow, now i feel soo much better, you fucking organic piece of trash. Envy makes my life that much better, that i can completely forget about what has been done to me, everyone around me, for which purposes it has been done (and if you believe that it has been done for greeks, as opposed to for megabanks and multinational megacorps (produce cheap, sell expensive), then you are beyond retarded - oh wait, you did already - nevermind). Because, you know - all that is irrelevant, because - there is someone who doesn't have it as bad as me - so that makes that guy the evil one, and i'm just fine! Because - you know, i'm a braindead egomaniac - no one may have it relatively better than me - if he does, he's evil and deserves to be put below me!
So folks, everybody suffer more! Because: The more pain, the better you are! You only become worthy via suffering. And those who refuse to suffer, just aren't worth shit - they must be made to suffer more. Get with the times - collective selfsacrifice and infighting for the sake of the kleptocracy. Sadomasochism as an ideology!
*
Yeah, people should just work until they can't and then die quickly so that the machine can just keep on chugging along on the educated fodder coming out of the schools, colleges and University...
Imagine the nerve of someone thinking that working for 35-50 years is enough and wanting to have a little downtime before taking the dirt nap!
And worse, if all workers could retire at a reasonable age - say 55-62 years of age - and could then have sufficient money to live, health to be vital and time to volunteer in the political process through political positions or challenging the wrongs perpetrated by the kleptocrats, THIS would be the worst (for the controllers) case.
Now there are definitely some pension reforms which should be made - in my opinion there should be NO pensions exceeding 70% income UNLESS purchase protection is not part of the pension contract. If hyperinflation arises, pensions should rise to meet the need. Also, set up a reward system for those who rat out thieves sucking off of disability programs etc. Catch a "disabled" person in hard physical labor or doing something he/she should not be able to do - get a monetary reward. The cheater loses benefits and pays back the ill-gotten gains - and does some jail time as well.
Well, my issues with people complaining about retirement and pensions are the following:
- I agree that the current system isn't a good idea. But NOT because people are getting too much, but because they get TOO LITTLE, compared to the amount they paid in, REAL inflation adjusted (OUCH!)... and they are at the whim of the gov. Short version: Pensions should simply be gold.
- Current pension cuts however have nothing to do with that. What they have to do with instead is:
- Purpose #1: The gov has wasted most of the money already. It isn't even capable anymore in the foreseable future, of paying out, what people paid in - NOT real inflation adjusted! (WTF?). Also, there aren't enough jobs anyways, so it also doesn't really matter how long people work before retirement. However, unemployment benefits (especially after they have been cut over and over to barebone), are cheaper than paying out pensions. And if people are stupid enough to actually work as long as demanded, naively being ignorant of inflation and future cuts, well.... maybe they'll just drop dead and nothing needs to be paid out.
- Purpose #2: More wage pressure downwards on the job market == more profits for multinational corporations (why multinational? Because national corps would sooner or later - absence gov sponsering - see buying power dry up. Multinationals on the other hand, can produce in one nation, sell in another - and thus avoid the wage <-> purchasing power feedbackloop).
- Purpose #3: Our bankster masters have again spend all their stuff on crack, bitches and icecream.... so, we just need to get cash SOMEWAY ANYWHERE..... ELSE.
<----Myths-Busted
<--- Duped Pricks
Lets look at some FACTS
" According to Eurostat, Greek workers work on average longer hours than the rest of Europeans. They work a 42-hour week, while the average working week in the 27 member states of the EU is 40.3 hours and within in the “Eurozone” it is 40 hours. So that is myth number one dispelled."
" What about the age of retirement and pension levels? If we were to believe the...media Greeks live in a kind of workers’ paradise, where they can all retire early and nice big pensions. Again, facts and figures are stubborn things and they give a completely different picture. The average age of retirement in Greece is 61.4 years, a little higher than the European average of 61.1 years."
"And what about these fat Greek pensions? According to the GSEE Labour Institution, the average pension in Greece is 750 euros per months [£650 pounds or US$990], while in Spain this figure reaches 950 euros, in Ireland 1700 euros, in Belgium 2800 euros and in the Netherlands 3200 euros. Moreover, this figure was calculated before the implementation of the new government measures, which increase the age of retirement from 65 to 67 years while at the same time cutting pensions by 30 to 50%."
"Furthermore, according to the annual report of the joint GSEE-ADEDY trade union confederations on the economy and employment levels in 2009, of the current four and a half million labour force, more than a million work without any social security or other forms of legal protection. According to the report of the Commission for Social Security, established by the Greek Ministry of Labour, this figure reaches 30% of the overall workforce, while in the rest of the EU the percentage of workers in these conditions are only between 5 and 10% of the total."
"Instead of civil servants’ wages going up in recent years, we have seen the opposite phenomenon. As a result of the constant cuts carried out since 1990, according to an ADEDY report [the civil servants trade union confederation], the total real income of civil servants has fallen by 30%. During recent years, governments have preferred to grant “allowances” to civil servants instead of real wage increases. These allowances have neither been included in the annual pay rises nor are they taken into account when calculating pension levels upon retirement."
The banksters and their politicians have now been exposed for their robbery; now they must pay the price.
I'm sick and tired of all you Little Miss Informations out there flashing us your fake tits and pretending that they're all natural
GFY's
Yeah, that's right: little red triangles is all you've got, pricks.
BS. After all that hard work, there are less Greeks making more than $100K in the entire country then there are people in my small town in NJ making more than $100K.
If they are working so hard, what the hell are they producing? They don't even produce enough food for themselves, they import food. I can't think of a single product I have ever purchased that was made in Greece. They have some tourism - all generated by accident of climate and some things done thousands of years ago by people that probably have little or no genetic relationship to present day Greeks.
Most of them 'work' for the government - doing nothing.
Totally agree about government workers. It is however the politicians who created entitlement society by buying their votes paid by the productive Greeks.
Obama and the so called progressives are on their way to produce an even larger entitlement society. He knows the drill.
I know from my own experience in Greece that the Greeks can often be incredibly lazy mofos. We could trust your unsourced rant, or Michael Lewis' very fine article in Vanity Fair.
The Greeks are totally fucked.
They’re not just a little fucked, like your car just got towed or you got drunk and accidentally banged a Ladyboy … No Greece is fucked big time, like waking up in a bathtub full of ice and your own blood in Bangkok and realizing your kidneys are already on the next flight to Vietnam.
It amazes me that people are still debating whether or not Greece will default. For the rest of us non-retards, it is a foregone conclusion. The real question is when they will default and how many other European countries they will take down with them. Clearly if the few solvent countries that are left in Western Europe (read: Germany) keep bailing out the incompetent losers like Greece they too will go bankrupt. With estimates reaching as high as $250,000 of public debt per working adult ($1.2 trillion total) and rising, even school children should be able to understand that in a small country of only 11 million people, that debt level will be absolutely insurmountable.
http://www.singledudetravel.com/2011/07/greece-greed-graft-and-the-grim-reaper/
That Bangkok tale is going to give me nightmares, thanks a lot.
It amazes me that anyone doubts Greece will default too, though it appears that there exists international financial chicanery that knows no limits. Greece should just go the Icelandic route and get it over with.
"Clearly if the few solvent countries that are left in Western Europe (read: Germany)"
Erm, they didn't even make the top four on this list
And as long as we're sharing anecdotes and making sweeping generalisations based on them: I have yet to experience a country where I haven't met at least a few lazy fucks. Perhaps skyrocketing obesity rates might provide a clearer picture?
http://www.singledudetravel.com/2011/07/fat-people-the-aids-of-america/
Everything rings true except the Bangkok tail which has been related to Bangkok, Shanghai and other parts unknown, but never verified.
BS indeud.
Tell you what, first you should try actually reading my comment, and then respond to it if you can find any errors in the facts it outlines. Otherwise please don't waste anymore of my time with your MSM induced claptrap.
They don't do that - that group of 8 people who suffer from braindamage and/or denial of reality and/or are paid sockpuppets.... simply refuse to accept, and even downvote posts, that do nothing else than post cold hard stats.
But you know - FUCK THEM! REPOST!
Work = sit in air conditioned government office playing Farmville.
Yeah, that's right, that's it, that's all you've got; nothing.
i thought he might have missed yer point...
hahaha! Touche. I was attacking his "BS." and what followed the apple and oranges comparison.
Olives, olive oil and feta cheese are all I ever see from Greece.
Don't forget Ouzo!
And anal sex, of course.